Agreed. Disappointing drive from FM. Granted he got into the points but with the speed that car has he should've gotten to 4th. I would have thought he would have at least challenged Fisi a little more in the closing laps. Do you believe 565 people voted FM as driver of the day over on a poll at itv-f1.com ??? What the hell were they watching ?
Well, they were NOT watching the sector times because if they were they would see that Massa was not even close to the three podium drivers in any sector or any lap during the race. Note that Kimi without a radio beat his own pole qualifying time by a good margin.
I don't think there is no point of discussion between Kimi and Felippe. There never was. Felippe can occasionally drive fast, but what comes to concentration to their top performance, Kimi is a such a person to concentrate to what he do. He has always been. See how many driving mistakes he has done during his career not to finish his race if you calculate out car failures? One: 2 years ago when leading in Hockenheim, he overbrake his front tyre asymmetricaland the shaking of the tyre broke his front suspension and caused DNF 2 laps before the finish line. But no other mistakes by driver. Still doing top stuff in every race. Think about that concentration. As a person he gives a **** for the public behaviour. He concentrates to the essential: driving. He's always been like that. By being overcool: no too Finnish, just Kimi issue. Mika Häkkinen had some of that, but he is actually very different what comes to his person. Kimi will win eventually a lot.
Ok here's the issue, your slamming Massa for not being as good as Kimi, Senna and Michael. It's an established fact that last year Michael, Kimi and Fernando>>>>>>the rest of the field, including Massa. I've said this before and i'll say it again, there simply aren't enough super talents like Kimi and Alonso to go around. So let's review.... 1. Michael, Kimi and Fernando>>>>>> the rest of the field 2. Talents like those three simply aren't common enough for everyone to have them. 3. Obviously Ferrari feels that other drivers on the field aren't worth the trouble of buying out their contracts and/or moving them over to replace Felipe because the Ferrari is a good enough car that an average F1 driver will suit. Also, they have no other options.
i agree with the above statement. MS, Kimi, and FA is above the rest of the field. but, i think right behind them, is currently Massa. no doubt about that. yes, he has some weakness, in the rain notably, but i think he has some overtaking skills, if not he won'thave finished 6th from dead last. the way some of u guys on the board say things about massa is like he's really useless. sure, he's not on the same level as the 3 names i mentioned above, and yes, i do believe he has plenty of room for improvement. but take a look at the rest of the field and i think massa stands out than the rest. coming with a statement like ' anybody that drives a Ferrari f1 car is automatically a winner, ' etc is all bull****. doesn't matter what car u drive, winning comes from inside of you, and thats passion. we've seen in the past ppl like MS and Senna, they do anything to win a GP. i think it's really time to wake up and face the fact that Massa drives for our beloved Scuderia, and we should support him in every way we can. not condemn him for no reason.
Hmm I disagree. Anyone who is in F1 is an exceptional racing driver, and they won races in other series like GP2/F3000, F3 etc. So if any F1 driver (except Ide) had a Ferrari, and excluding anything like rain or starting from the back of the field( things where the extra special talent shines) then they should/would be able to win, because it's the best car on the grid.
I don't think anyone has said Massa is 'useless'...BUT...the fact of the matter is that there ARE other drivers on the grid that could do just as well, and some of those drivers, would probably outperform Massa given that Ferrari. Yes, passion and determination helps a driver get to the N'th degree, but, WINNING, comes from the combination of a fast driver and a fast/reliable car. No amount of internal determination in the world will help a driver if his car is a backmarker one. Also, just because PM drives for our 'beloved' team, doesn't mean we aren't allowed to criticise, or comment on the scheme of things. This goes for other Ferrari drivers too. Fact is, had there been the 'other' drivers available for the taking at the time of Massa's hiring, Massa would not have found a seat in the Red car. In the end, i will still cheer for Massa and hope he performs better than he ever has in his entire career--to ensure as many points as possible for the team. Under the normal run of things, i'm confident Massa will consistently challenge for the podium--he had better, given the car he has. While i'm sure he will do fine, considering the car he has, I hope he does more than 'fine' and gets the most out of that machine (which i think he did not last year). I'm the kind of supporter/fan that cares most about the athlete/driver getting the most out of what he/she has. If you are in the fastest car, then i expect you to be in contention for the win ALL the time (factors not within your control notwithstanding). If you cannot exploit that machine to the fullest, then, perhaps you shouldn't be the one to drive it. Just my opinion. And yes, 6th place isn't bad in Melbourne, but 4th should've belong to Ferrari. Every point helps...look at the WCC last year.
If he qualifies out front somehow, if Kimi has tech/reliability issues, he has a great chance of winning... but in 'even' 'head to head' i don't think he's going to school Kimi...and lets not forget the Spaniard in that silver car...still dangerous...
Good points Dave. but i think i just tired of reading stuff like ' there are others out there in the field that can drive a Ferrari better than Massa ' . i think Ferrari picked him for a reason. they could have ditched him last season and signed up someone else, but they didn't. i personally think he has matured a lot as a driver. i think what we all need is just to give him abit more time.
Is there any reason that suspect that Massa is better than: Webber Button Barrichello Trulli Schumacher (Ralf) Heidfeld Kubica Fisichella Honestly, I don't see any reason to think he's better than any of those.
let's see...here's what i think : Webber - whines too much, and i think Nick did better than him in 2005 Button - overrated, not agressive, but smooth driver. Barrichello - had his chance Trulli - he's only good at quali, but not on raceday. FA blew him away in 2004? Schumacher (Ralf) - always promise, but never delivers. but he was quick in the williams a few years ago Heidfeld - i think, if Massa is replaced, he and Kubica could spring a surprise Kubica - same as above. Fisichella - he seems to always be demotivated. so, thats just all my opinions.
Well, actually Webber dominated Nick that year (in qualy) and Webber did get knocked out by Fisi in the second race when he was looking for a podium...that certainly didn't help any comparisons in points. Overrated, but more overrated than Massa? I'd doubt it. And? Is Massa faster than him? Trulli was absolutely not blown away by FA in 04. Any less or more quick than Massa? Yeah, because they're fast. But certainly not any faster than half the people on this list. But is he slower than Massa? Hell, Massa can't pass him... Keep in mind, my point isn't that Massa is slow. My point is that he is part of a very large 2nd tier of drivers whose names don't begin with Kimi or Fernando. Is that bad? Certainly not, but there is no evidence at this point to suggest that Massa is better than those guys.
As far as F1 goes, we´re all outsiders here. We can base our assumptions only on what we see on TV and that is juist a very tiny bit of what F1 drivers do, how they function within the team and therefor how they must be valued in terms of driverquality. A simple fact however is that Ferrari did choose Massa from all these alternatives, where they easily could´ve made a different choice. Chances are, Ferrari didn´t want any of the named alternatives, they wanted Massa. And the had their eye on him for a long time. Even before Peter Sauber put him in a Sauber for his first test. So why not give him the benefit of the doubt? And yes, Trulli was blown away by FA, as FA has a habit of blowing his teammates away.
Aren't we forgetting a couple of facts here: - Massa's manager is Jean Todt's son - Massa was the "spare" driver, easy to sacrifice if Michael had chosen not to retire. Remember the announcement came in Monza. At that time basically all realistic alternate drivers had already signed contracts.
true, but, according to MS he made his decision in Indy itself. some day he even made the decision that 2006 will be his last season in Bahrain! point here is, MS made his decision say in Indy, Ferrari still had time to talk to other drivers about that.
What are you implying? Nicolas has a habit of managing mediocre drivers, and Jean is questionable enough in his job of managing Ferrari, to place the interest of his son above those of the Ferrari racingteam and ultimately the company? I have never understood this argument. If Schumacher had decided to stay on, then yes, the lineup would probably have been Schumacher/Raikkonen, but that doesn´t mean Ferrari view upon Felipe as being disposable as ´just another driver´. It just means that Ferrari, like any other team, is bound by the rule of having two drivers per team. Having access to the services of Schumacher, Raikkonen and Massa, while only having the space to use the services of two of them, looks more like a problem of luxury to me than a valid argument that Massa is ´just another driver´ to Ferrari. Since when is Ferrari impressed with a signed contract? They took Alesi away from Williams at the beginning of 1991, despite a signed contract between Jean and Frank. Frank got a Ferrari 641 F1 car for compensation, which is, if I am correct, still in his museum. Irvine had to be bought out of his contract at Jordan for 1996, just signed a week before Ferrari made the announcement.
For all the talk about Massa being valuable to the team, let's not forget one salient point: As #2 to Michael Schumacher, Massa's job was to: 1) Support Michael in the WDC title race. 2) Pick up enough points to help secure the WCC championship. Last year, Massa failed to do both.
First off: How do you know that? Second: If true, did he communicate that to anybody in the team? Third: If he did, then you just called them all liars, because as far as I remember they all "swore on the bible" not to have the slightest idea of what would happen before Monza. From what I remember it was Montezemolo who forced Michael to make a decision. Until Monza the general belief was that Michael would make up his mind after the final race, which is precisely the reason they needed a "disposable" #2.
i read this on a few online sites. it seems, Michael made hsi decision on the built up to the USGP. only his wife, close frens and the teams knew. he also stated that Ferrari wanted him to announce it at Monza because, Monza is a special place for Ferrari and big things were announced there. i'll try to dig up the links..
