Fernando Alonso exits and Sebastian Vettel enters. It has been known for some time, but only today the news becomes official: the sliding doors will open in Maranello and, starting next year, the Asturian driver will no longer drive a Ferrari. In place of him the four-time world champion Vettel, who will try to revive the glories of the last great German in red, Michael Schumacher.
The announcement from the Maranello company was brief but heartfelt, succinct but emotional: “Scuderia Ferrari and Fernando Alonso announce that they have consensually terminated their technical-competitive collaboration relationship - reads the note from the Cavallino - at the end of a five-year period which to date has seen him conquer 1186 points, 44 podiums and 11 victories ". For the Spaniard, in addition to the customary thanks, there is talk of a "place of honor in the history of Ferrari".
Thus ends an adventure full of ups and downs and with a bitter ending. In his five years with Ferrari, Alonso collected three second places in the Drivers' standings, two of which on the wire. A few details, a wider or narrower curve, and he would have become champion, inscribing his name in the roll of honor alongside that of the Maranello team.
Yet the Asturian, in the end, leaves empty-handed, with the unpleasant sensation of having done his best and that his best was not enough. The rivals were too strong (the cannibal Vettel of the first four years, the Mercedes of Rosberg and Hamilton this year), Ferrari too weak (slow, awkward), especially in the last two years. A two-year period that inevitably ended up dirtying a story that started with very different assumptions and proclamations.
One door closes and another opens: the next home for the two-times world champion (in 2005 and 2006, with Renault) will be McLaren, where he lived for a year apart at home in 2007 (when, however, he was still talking about McLaren-Mercedes). In Maranello and its surroundings, all eyes will be on his successor Sebastian Vettel who, after four years as a cannibal with a car that is infinitely better than the others, must dissipate the first little clouds that have appeared above him.
