Raikkonen to team up with Alonso at Ferrari

LONDON - Reuters

Formula One driver Kimi Raikkonen will rejoin Ferrari after five years. AP photo

Finland’s Kimi Raikkonen will race for Ferrari next season in a two-year deal that takes the 2007 world champion back to the glamour team he left in 2009 and creates the strongest pairing in Formula One.

Ferrari said in a statement Sept.11 that the 33-year-old “Iceman,” currently at Lotus, will replace Felipe Massa alongside Spain’s double world champion Fernando Alonso.

“Scuderia Ferrari announces that it has reached an agreement with Kimi Raikkonen. The Finn will join Fernando Alonso in the driver line-up for the next two racing seasons,” the statement said.

Alonso had made clear he would have been happy to continue with Massa. The Spaniard has a contract to the end of 2016.

Ferrari last had two world champions in their lineup in 1953, when Italians Alberto Ascari and Giuseppe Farina were together.

Other top teams have opted to pair a champion with a driver whose resume is less glittering.

Red Bull have a new face in Australian Daniel Ricciardo, who has yet to stand on the podium, as teammate to triple champion Sebastian Vettel while 2009 winner Jenson Button has Sergio Perez alongside him at McLaren but the Mexican is not yet a race winner.

Germany’s Nico Rosberg, who partners Hamilton at Mercedes, has been on the top step of the podium twice this season but only three times in his career.