Could Felipe Massa do a Prost? On his current run of form Felipe Massa stands a chance of achieving something very rarely seen in Formula 1: he could turn the tables on his team mate by taking the title off him the year after he won it. The only driver to achieve this in recent F1 history is Alain Prost, who did it twice while at McLaren. In 1989 he infamously turned the tables on Ayrton Senna and took away the title the Brazilian had won in 1988 when the pair were also team mates. And in 1985 he did likewise to Nika Lauda, the year after the Austrian had pipped him to the title by half a point. Before then you have to go back over four decades to 1967 when Denny Hulme, driving a Brabham, pinched the drivers title off his team mate - Jack Brabham! As noted here earlier the drivers championship race has closed to just six points covering four drivers. Lewis Hamilton may sit on top of the pile but Ferrari have won the most races and in the past four events Massa has trimmed Kimi Raikkonens advantage over him to a single point. It seemed unthinkable a few weeks into the season when Massa had gone off three times in two races. Why is it so rare to see drivers in the same team take titles off each other? In Formula 1 the competitiveness of a car counts for a lot, so you might imagine it would happen more often. In recent years we have become used to seeing the top teams focussing their efforts on a single driver - it was certainly the case for Michael Schumacher at Ferrari. One team that have consistently bucked that trend is McLaren. Their policy on signing drivers appears to be to compile a list of the best drivers in the sport and try to sign the best two who are available. This has had destuctive consequences in recent years: the class of 2001 - Raikkonen, Alonso and Juan Pablo Montoya - all stormed out of the team on less than happy terms within 18 months of each other. Which is something else that Prost could tell us a thing or two about by Keith Collantine F1F.CO.UK
The difference is that Prost was already a double champion and one of the greatest drivers of his generation.
When I saw the title of this thread I was thinking of what Prost did to Senna in Japan: Driving into him. Well, Massa could certainly do that to Hamilton, but I doubt it would help.
of course not, Felipe needs the points. The best strategy is just to go out and win. F1 can be so easy sometimes.
Let's face it, if Phil had the reliability of the McL car and crew he would be looking to wrap it up this weekend.
I thought the same thing. However, given the topic, something Niki Lauda said earlier this year regarding this very competitive season: it will come down to consistency. I think Massa has been quite consistent this year. If he poles, he wins.
i think, given Massa's difficult start of the season, his mishap the last GP, i'm happy to see him so positive, not whining and critisizing the team in public. he's still confident he can outdo Hammi, and i think it's Hammi who is under pressure to deliver, not Massa. sure, Massa had his crap races in Britain and in Malaysia, but that aside, i think he's been a star performer this season. and i still think he has the fire to be Brazil 1st WDC since Senna. Forza Massa.
Exactly what I thought...except that Kimi does it under "shadow orders" from the team. He is the perfect candidate, nobody is surprised when he crashes into something (including Hamilton) in the ending laps. No, I don't think I was serious - I hope I wasn't, really-
you're thinking of DC. Hamilton is aggressive and more likes to run people off the road, ala Schumacher style.
I predicted precisely that in another thread: Kimi's recent crashes were deliberate to show the world that he has no car control. So he has an excuse when he takes Hamilton out in the remaining races.
I hope so too, but could almost guarantee they won't. In fact I expect Kimi 100% to drive into Hamilton in Fuji tonight. It will happen.
You don't stay in F1 long if you have no skill, and I'm pretty sure the 'worst' driver in F1 can drive rings around any of us..
Yawn. That argument again. Of course any F1 driver can drive rings around us. Just like any baseball player would beat us handsdown and so and so on. That's not the point. Ever. No skill is in comparison to other F1 drivers. Of course Massa has skills, otherwise he wouldn't be 2nd in the championship. But he is nowhere near Hamilton's class.
