Raikkonen engineer Slade not moving to Ferrari

Kimi Raikkonen’s race engineer Mark Slade will not follow him from Lotus to Ferrari, it has emerged.

The Finn worked with Slade initially at McLaren, and the pair reunited when Raikkonen returned to F1 with Lotus last year.

But a report in Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport on Thursday said Ferrari has "no intention" of hiring Slade.

With Felipe Massa’s engineer Rob Smedley believed to be heading to Williams, the report said Ferrari will promote from within as it prepares to welcome Raikkonen.

Raikkonen’s former Ferrari engineer, Andrea Stella, now works with Fernando Alonso.

Spaniard Alonso said on Thursday he does not expect Raikkonen to be quicker than the departing Massa in 2014.

"If we have a competitive car we will enjoy the season and we will do very good things," he said.

"If we don’t have a competitive car it will be very similar to this season I think," added Alonso.