Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali rules out Vettel-Alonso partnership – Formula 1 news
Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali has once again reiterated that Sebastian Vettel cannot partner Fernando Alonso at the team.
The two champion drivers have long been associated with working for Ferrari in what would become the ‘dream team’. Fernando Alonso won the drivers’ championship in 2005 and 2006 Formula 1 seasons with Renault while Sebastian Vettel has won the last three
championships in a row, making him the youngest triple world champion of the sport.
On the track, both are fierce rivals and have been involved in close title fights over the last few years. Their fight went all the way to the final race in Abu Dhabi in 2010 and it was the same case in Brazil in 2012 as well. However, on both occasions,
Vettel came out the champion but analysts still rate Alonso as one of the very best drivers of the present era and rate him to be as good as Vettel, if not better.
The Ferrari team boss has been repeatedly asked the question if he would like to replace Felipe Massa with Sebastian Vettel. However, he reiterated his views that he cannot afford to have two number one drivers in his team.
“Could Vettel and Alonso one day be part of a dream team?” Domenicali asked. “I think our President has already commented on this subject several times: a dream team is fantastic if it is correctly managed, but at the moment we are not looking at that, because
we want to ensure the team is as well balanced as possible. You have to be very careful, not just in Formula 1, but in sport in general, because sometimes, putting together all the Number Ones can lead to more negatives than positives.”
Ferrari’s approach over the years has been that they keep one driver who gets them race wins while the other one supports the first driver on the grid. In the glory days of Michael Schumacher with the Scarlet team, Rubens Barrichello frequently played this
role while more recently, Felipe Massa has been playing the second fiddle. Therefore, the Ferrari boss thinks having two number one drivers will be impracticable for the team.
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