Ferrari did it last year on Kimi performance from Spain and Monaco. Massa is a #1 driver, he is fast, he is a team player, he has everything a driver needs to win the WDC. I hope Massa just forgets about these two races and gets his grove back in Bahrain. Everyone sometimes has a hard time.
They're a little bit different. Massa had pole in Malaysia and somehow took himself out. In Australia, Massa decided to spin himself out on the first lap and then T-Bone DC. Kimi on the other hand had trouble qualifying in Monaco and had a hard time moving up the field. Kimi also had car trouble in Spain, something you can't blame on him. Ferrari would make a comment like they did last year about Kimi because he had a bad race. Ferrari would make a comment like they just did about Felipe because he is a bad driver.
Bit more searching..got me this: Released on the 15th of march: From the FIA.com Article 30: General Safety ‘If a car stops on the track it shall be the duty of the marshals to remove it as quickly as possible so that its presence does not constitute a danger or hinder other competitors. If any mechanical assistance results in the car rejoining the stewards may drop the driver such number of grid positions as they consider appropriate if the incident occurs during a practice session or exclude him from the race.’ Drivers can no longer expect to benefit by being returned to the track via a recovery vehicle following an incident. This change has been made in the obvious interests of safety. It discourages drivers from remaining in stranded cars, and also means that officials and oncoming drivers are not put at risk by a recovery vehicle carrying a car towards the track rather than a safe area. The only exception is if the mechanical assistance involves a car stranded on the grid being given a tow to the pit lane, from where, as before, it will be allowed to rejoin the race http://www.fia.com/mediacentre/Press_Releases/FIA_Sport/2008/March/150308-01.html
To be a #1 driver, doesn't your performance need to outshine your teammate. Kimi clearly stands heads and shoulders above Massa, and while MS and Jean Todt may be in love with Massa, the team and the new management is in love with Kimi. Hell, someone call up Eddie Irvine... tell him he has his seat back if he wants it.
Quick question. Is using an underscore to get around the cursing sensor legal on FChat? Didn't you ban me for a day because I used the word "arse", which is what kids say instead of ass. Depending on the mood of the moderator, things can slide a long way and other day, as soon as you click "submit" you're banned.
Using an underscore to avoid the profanity filter is against the TOS. In my case however I had to use it to show what curse words Ron used. In his case actually against me. I figured somebody would pick up on it. Why am I not surprised that it was you. But you have a point, I should use the banning function more often.
+1 Spot on. Believe me, I have thought of that name a long time ago, but never thought it would be a good idea to use it. I leave that kind of "humor" to other people. What they don't realize is that by using such names, they basically invalidate their entire post.
LOL Easy there tiger. Also why wasn't @$$ blocked out in my post? Is the filter even working? Oh, let me guess FerrariChat bosses let Felipe Massa run the swear filter and now it's buried in the Malaysian sand.
Wasn't thinking of you actually, but the original offender. The filter is permanently on, but I have seen strange cases where some stuff slipped through.
Julio, I'm sorry you feel that way. I have thought about banning the abuse of Alonso's name. Since I'm a big Alonso fan, I'd rather let this slip because otherwise I come across as heavy handed. The other issue is, where do you draw the line? Many of us use nicknames for drivers. When does a nickname become offensive? In Alonso's case it is offensive, but is something like "the Hamster" for Hami also offensive? Or Kimster? It is a slippery slope and I hate to get on it.
Well if swearing isn't allowed, then any swear word should be banned. Skirting the filter with @ $ etc should be a warning, then a ban. If rules exist and some people are cornered by them, then all people should be cornered here. Trivia: has a moderator ever banned himself? Also with the Alonso nick name, that's clearly a swear word and I think it should be banned because it so closely resembles the swear word.
Funny that the guy who uses that name for Alonso should get a ban for his idiotic posts on this section as opposed to his swear words. Thank god for the ignore function.
There is nothing for you to feel sorry about, I realize moderating is not an easy task. Drawing the line is of course the big problem, and perhaps I feel too sensitive and overreact in the Alonso case; it's just the endless repetition of the tired old self-congratulatory vulgarity that gets me... Cheers, Julio
All this is way too confusing now.... Rules... moderators... I'm like Kimi... I show up, I post, I win (hehehe). No name calling, no press conferences. Eff it.
Really Ron? Are you sure that McLaren put out a statement reaffirming their confidence in their driver after Hamilton beached his car last year? I'm afraid I am going to have to call bullpoop on that one, because it never happened. Are you really comparing Hamilton to Massa? Let's be clear, Hamilton is in an entirely different league than Massa is in terms of skill and talent. They are in different ballparks, different ZIP codes, different planets. At China last year, Hamilton screwed up his opportunity to clinch the WDC. The comments McLaren made were to the effect of "he'll bounce back - crap happens". The comments made about Massa are to the effect of "Yeah that is two big mistakes to make but we're not going to fire him". The events that led up to the statements were entirely different, the gist of the statements were entirely different, and the questions and prompting from reporters that precipitated the answers/statements given were entirely different. In Hamiltons case it was just McLarens reaction to his mistake and how disappointed they were over not clinching the WDC. In Ferraris case it's "are you sure you want this guy in your car who hasn't scored a point and has embarassed himself so far in your car". Massa is in no way comparable to Hamilton. They have absolutely nothing in common.
Yes and before we talk about the "obvious McLaren bias" let's not forget the guy who benefitted from the now-hated "push out of trouble back onto the track" maneuver, our very own Michael Schumacher. But of course it was absolutely OK then - it only started to be a clear bias against Ferrari and an outrageous breach of all things sporting and fair when it was someone OTHER than a Ferrari driver being helped out of a bind.....
Well, I was going to start - but those of us from Massachussetts already have a monopoly on the word "M*******" and we're not sure that an extra "a" in the middle absolves copyright infringement
Yes and as I recall there were some serious concerns about Kimis performance at that time - including Luca saying things like Kimi needing to start producing results, etc. As for the comments on Massa - sure you are joking! A #1 driver? You mean compared to Kimi? Laughable! Massa is a shoddy #2 driver, forget about #1 driver. He would be a relative #1 driver only if he moved to perhaps Force India or Super Aguri, but I have serious doubts about whether he'd be able to outperform Fisichella or Sato to claim the #1 spot in those teams either. Massa is a #2 driver through and through - and a bad #2 at that. Yes, Massa has had a hard time - it started the moment he got into F1 and hasn't stopped even to this day. It's easy to see why though - it's called "lack of talent"
