With Michael Schumacher now retired, Ferrari appears to have scrapped its policy of determining a ‘number one’ driver even before the season has begun, we can reveal.
Salary aside, the biggest difference between Schumacher and teammate Felipe Massa’s contract last year was that German Schumacher’s settings were always applied to the spare car at every race.
But it now emerges that Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, Schumacher’s successor, will in 2007 share the spare car honour, even if it is not yet clear which of the drivers will be assigned the spare car for the first race in Melbourne.
It has been speculated that Ferrari will settle on a more permanent ‘number one’ after a few races this year, but Massa told the Brazilian newspaper O Globo: “The ideal situation is that both of us arrive at the last few races disputing the title.”
Raikkonen, meanwhile, said Ferrari was unlikely to use a third driver for the Friday test sessions this year.
“If everything runs normally the race drivers will always drive,” he told the major Finnish newspaper Turun Sanomat.
Raikkonen added: “A test driver might occasionally drive but I doubt it.”
