Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFerrari

Arrivabene: Ferrari line-up ‘a perfect combination’

Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene says the driver line-up of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen is “a perfect combination”.

Raikkonen is Ferrari’s last drivers’ world champion and rejoined the team at the start of 2014 from Lotus, but was comfortably beaten by Fernando Alonso last year. Vettel has moved across from Red Bull to replace Alonso and Arrivabene says the way both Vettel and Raikkonen have worked with the team in pre-season testing highlights what a good partnership the two drivers create.

“They are two different characters, it’s quite normal,” Arrivabene said. “One is not talking at all! It’s partially true, because the people who know Kimi very well, he is talking. He’s the kind of person who doesn’t really like to talk about stupidity, he likes to talk about serious things.

“Then you discover that he likes art, he’s got very good taste and he knows about everything. Or you’ll find that after a couple of hours with him he’s hugging you and smiling … he’s a very good guy and a very good driver.

“Seb is different. Seb is super-professional and sometimes I get impressed and emotional because when I saw him working in the garage it’s reminding me of another German guy. I was impressed by his concentration and how he works on details on the car, the way he is taking notes and talking about these notes during the briefing. It’s great.

“So we have two different drivers but both of them are really committed … I’m not surprised [Vettel] won four world titles. With the way he’s working, it’s not a surprise, he’s a super person. And concerning Kimi, I want to remind you that after Michael [Schumacher] Kimi was the only world champion with Ferrari. So we have a perfect combination.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.