We saw it happen last year between McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and ex-teammate Fernando Alonso. Will the same thing happen this year to Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa?

After Räikkönen's disappointing end to the Belgian Grand Prix where he came close to taking his first victory since the Spanish GP back in April, many thought the Finn would now be focused on helping Felipe Massa in the bid for his first ever Driver Championship. However, Räikkönen, 28, thinks otherwise.

"I'm not worried about what happened and I won't give up: I'll fight right until the end. The points will be counted at the end of the season: there are still five races to go. My actual position is not ideal, but as I've said many times I'm not someone who gives up easily." 

"We're going back to the track immediately for the Italian GP. Monza is the Mecca of Ferrari's tifosi and I think that there will be a lot of Finnish fans, too.

"It's the fastest track of the year and it's good to go there, knowing that I can count on a car, which runs how I like it.

"I think that the F2008 can be really competitive: after the qualifying we'll see if it was enough. We'll give it all to win, for the team and for the fans.

"This is Ferrari's home race and it would be fantastic to win the Italian GP for the first time. I've got nothing to lose, so I'll give it all, going flat out." 

Bad news for Massa. The Brazilian actually hoped for Kimi to ditch his hopes and try to help him like he did last year for the Finn.

Speaking to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Massa said, "The team wants to win the title and we are going to try our hardest to do it.

"It is true that Kimi is strong, an excellent driver. But we have to also look at the situation with the championship points."

Point taken there Massa, but it is to be seen if the Iceman will really give up his own Championship fight when it is still mathematically possible for him to win the Championship this year. Last season, with 5 races left, he was trailing 15 points behind the leader Hamilton. This year, 5 races left, he is trailing Hamilton at 17 points.

Difference here is there is no Fernando Alonso hell-bent on making Lewis Hamilton's life in McLaren a nightmare, so it will really take a lot of luck and coincidences for Räikkönen's hope of defending his Championship title alive.

With two drivers not really working as a team at this moment in time, will Ferrari actually experience what happened in McLaren last year - strong, overly-intense rivalry between the two drivers which led to a painful end for the team?

Ferrari has reiterated again and again that they will not go into a decision to select a number 1 driver in the team - a decision that might be costly in their bid for the Constructors' Championship as well. Typically, when a team has a clearly defined number 1 (and of course, an obedient number 2 driver who accepts his fate) the number 2 driver will play as a defender between the rivals and the number 1 driver of his team.

The Italian tifosi, press and Ferrari legends like Niki Lauda have came out to say that Ferrari should appoint Massa as the number 1 driver now that he has shown he is the more competitive driver this season. In the Belgian Grand Prix, at the second lap, the Ferrari drivers were racing wheel-to-wheel and nearly clashed into each other, moves that are certainly setting the hearts on the Ferrari pitwall palpitating. Felipe Massa may not have been a happy man to lose the fight with Räikkönen but in the end he kept a cool head and cruised to a comfortable second place - to be promoted to the race winner after the 25 seconds penalty on Hamilton.

With the Italian Grand Prix this weekend, Ferrari will certainly not want to disappoint the tifosi at Monza. Räikkönen will be sure to, as he said, go all out for a victory and certainly not go down without a fight. But with the McLarens being so strong in the recent races, especially main title contender Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari might just back Felipe Massa a little more in his Championship fight.

Not to mention his mentor is Michael Schumacher.  

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.

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