World champion Fernando Alonso has named Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen as an obvious contender for the 2007 title.
After three races this season, Spaniard Alonso shares the lead of the drivers’ standings with the Finn, but also his McLaren teammate and rookie Lewis Hamilton.
In an interview with the newspaper El Pais, however, the 25-year-old singled out Raikkonen as the rival who is most likely to maintain his presence near the very top of the order after a close battle this season.
“Without a doubt, he has all the ingredients to be one of the main candidates,” Alonso said.
“(Raikkonen) has the experience of having fought for a lot of titles, in 2003, 2004, and 2005, and I think he will be there during the whole championship.”
In a separate interview last week, Alonso suggested that the current four-way tussle for title supremacy – involving Hamilton and also Raikkonen’s teammate Felipe Massa – would last only until mid-season.
He added: “Eventually one or two will have some bad luck or stop achieving such good results, so that at the end of the championship probably only two or three will be left to fight.”
The question of who will fight for the 2007 title is a fascinating and highly debatable one.
“It looks as though Hamilton and Massa are both capable of making a fight of it with their teammates,” Toro Rosso co-owner Gerhard Berger observed to the German magazine Sport Bild.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, meanwhile, said: “I would say Kimi or Fernando have the biggest chances, but it is too difficult to really say at the moment.”
And Spyker’s Colin Kolles added: “The title fight will be as close at the end of the season as it is now.”
