Buemi gets the boot

Er, actually I believe he has, and that is why he was off the pace this year.

And Massa should be the perfect number 2. After all he was hired to do whatever MS wanted, whenever he wanted (and maybe off the track too ), so he should be a well trained little puppy. The difference is he has lost some pace since then, simple as that ... and possibly had delusions of granduer when Kimi was there because Kimi simply could not give a toss about his team mates pace, or heck his own pace or anything else for that matter.
Pete

 

I think most of them secretly know... but denial is a powerful thing!

 

Exactly...he has lost his pace. Unfortunately due to that accident.

Massa was always a little hit & miss...if his setup (& car for his driving style...) was perfect, he'd be very hard to beat. If not...he wasn't the greatest and couldn't wrestle the car as well as a guy like Alonso can. Now since his accident it took a turn for the worse, and he hasn't been able to set up his car perfectly at all it seems.

Di Resta would be a good #2 for the time being. Same goes for Kobayashi or Perez. A guy to really watch out for and who would do great under a 'young driver programme' would be Esteban Guitierez.

 

Massa was a title contender on his own account, Irvine only had a shot when Schumacher was out with injury.

 

I see both of them in a similar situation of a vacuum at Ferrari:

Irvine because of MS' accident
Massa because of Kimi's unexpected lack of commitment.

The #1 role Massa played in 2008 was not the standard after years of being #2 behind MS, #2 behind Kimi in 2007 and returning to #2 once Alonso arrived.