{"id":20620,"date":"2014-01-03T06:53:31","date_gmt":"2014-01-03T11:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/?p=20620"},"modified":"2014-01-03T06:53:31","modified_gmt":"2014-01-03T11:53:31","slug":"ecclestone-backs-ferraris-fun-driver-pairing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/formula-1\/ecclestone-backs-ferraris-fun-driver-pairing\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecclestone backs Ferrari’s ‘fun’ driver pairing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bernie Ecclestone has backed Ferrari’s controversial new driver pairing.<\/p>\n

\"Bernie-Ecclestone-3\"Some – even Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo – believe pitting former undisputed ‘number 1’ Fernando Alonso against the team’s 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen is a bold risk.<\/p>\n

“But I have been here since the early 70s,” the Italian said recently, “and I know that risk is something you have to live with in formula one.”<\/p>\n

Ecclestone, F1’s chief executive, usually likes to see the sport’s top drivers spread across the most competitive teams.<\/p>\n

But he thinks Alonso versus Raikkonen at Ferrari, F1’s most famous team, will be “fun”.<\/p>\n

“I thought Ferrari would win the title in 2013,” the 83-year-old Briton told Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport, “and I cannot explain why they were not competitive.<\/p>\n

“Alonso, in any case, drove well,” he added.<\/p>\n

Ecclestone answered “yes” when asked if the Spaniard was right to criticise the Maranello based team mid-season.<\/p>\n

But that criticism earned him a rebuke, and many believe Ferrari’s decision to replace Alonso’s preferred teammate Felipe Massa with Finn Raikkonen for 2014 was part of a shift away from the Spaniard.<\/p>\n

“Now the dust has settled,” Ecclestone explained, “and we will see a different Ferrari in 2014.<\/p>\n

“Alonso-Raikkonen is a classic combination that Enzo Ferrari would have liked to see.\u00a0 It will be fun with those two.<\/p>\n

“If Kimi drives as he did many times in 2013, it will stimulate Alonso, but what Ferrari really needs is a good car.\u00a0 Otherwise there is nothing to talk about,” he added.<\/p>\n

Ecclestone has said the team with the best all-new V6 engine will win the 2014 title, but he also thinks “luck” will play a big role.<\/p>\n

“There is no guarantee that the best driver will win the title,” he insisted.\u00a0 “The title will be for the luckiest one.\u00a0 At the moment I have no favourite.”<\/p>\n

\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bernie Ecclestone has backed Ferrari’s controversial new driver pairing. Some – even Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo – believe pitting former undisputed ‘number 1’ Fernando Alonso against the team’s 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen is a bold risk. “But I have been here since the early 70s,” the Italian said recently, “and I know that …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,251,5262,130,149,93,152,148],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20620"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20620"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20621,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20620\/revisions\/20621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}