Ferrari must hold on to Alonso, but could lose Raikkonen
http://www.bbc.com/s...rmula1/29166717
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Fernando Alonso wants to win 'special' third title at FerrariAnd now they are way beyond the point at which even Alonso can hide Ferrari's shortcomings and keep up a title challenge - as he did against the odds in 2012.
They look pretty bad already, even with Alonso carrying Ferrari on his back for the last few years.
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In some ways, Alonso has probably lengthened the time it took Ferrari to realise how bad they were, by dragging them to fight for world titles and giving them results they did not deserve. But there is no doubt any more.
Over the season so far, Ferrari are 0.2 seconds per kilometre slower than the Mercedes. So on a typical 5km track, Ferrari will be a second off the pace.
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Fernando Alonso has scored 121 points so far this season, nearly three times more than his team mate Kimi Raikkonen, who only has 41 points.
To qualify seventh and 12th at their home grand prix in Italy last weekend and finish ninth with the only car that got to the end - Kimi Raikkonen's - is clearly not good enough.
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The timing data from the Italian Grand Prix underlined Ferrari's lack of competitiveness.
They were 3km/h down on top speed at the end of the pit straight relative to Mercedes. They were on average 2km/h down at the speed traps at the end of each sector.
The Ferrari engine's lack of power and driveability is well known, but things looked just as bad on the car front.
The middle sector of the lap is the one with most of the corners - the second chicane and both Lesmos and then the run down to the Ascari chicane. And that was their least competitive sector - they were 0.65secs off the pace.
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Every area needs to be looked at and I would be questioning Raikkonen's position.
Felipe Massa was ousted last season because he was not measuring up, and Raikkonen is doing no better than him compared to Alonso, who admittedly is about as tough a team-mate as you could have.
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Alonso's average qualifying position this year is seventh; Raikkonen's is 10th. The only times Raikkonen has finished ahead in a race was in Spa, when Alonso was delayed with a penalty, and Monza, when Alonso retired with an engine problem.
While it's clear Raikkonen has not been happy with the way the car behaves this year and should be given some time to sort himself out, there are some fantastic young drivers emerging who are putting pressure on that situation.
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But I would also be looking elsewhere, even if that meant having to pay Raikkonen off for a second time, as they did at the end of 2009 to make way for Alonso.
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Edited by AustinF1, 14 September 2014 - 08:31.