Despite Luca di Montezemolo hinting recently that pairing
Fernando Alonso with
Kimi Raikkonen at
Ferrari would be ‘not desirable', Ross Brawn has underlined that although the
Scuderia's president suggested Alonso would not join Maranello whilst the reigning world champion was there, that did not mean he would never join forces with the scarlet brigade.
Alonso returned to
Renault this season – with whom he claimed both of his back-to-back title successes in 2005 and 2006 – following an uncomfortable campaign spent with McLaren-Mercedes last year, punctuated by very public fall-outs with the team management.
The Spaniard was keen to sign only a one-year contract with the
Régie – with many seeing this as a sign he intends to move on to Ferrari in 2009 – but in the end was persuaded to agree terms for two years, albeit with a get-out clause should the French outfit's performance fail to live up to his expectations, something which, until Barcelona at least, was irrefutably the case.
Although Montezemolo recently stressed that ‘a Raikkonen-Alonso double act would mean wanting to damage yourself' [see separate story –
click here], ex-Ferrari technical director and renowned strategic genius Brawn urged not to read too much into his former boss' remarks.
“The president's comment was interesting,”
Honda's new team principal told Spanish newspaper
El Pais. “He didn't say Alonso would never drive for Ferrari; what he said was that it would be illogical to have Fernando and Kimi in the same team.
“My experience tells me it is far better to have a very good first driver and a second driver to support him. Just look at
F1's history: Senna/Prost – serious problems; Alonso/Hamilton – serious problems. There is no solution to this sort of thing.”
![Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo at the F2008 shakedown at Fiorano [pic credit: Ferrari SpA]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/401864.jpg)
