(from autosport) Felipe Massa says Ferrari cannot afford to throw away any more points like they did at the Hungarian Grand Prix. The Brazilian was putting on one of his best performances in Formula One when, three laps from the end, he suffered an engine failure that robbed him of a sure victory at Hungaroring. A frustrated Massa admitted he found his retirement hard to believe. "I don't want to forget the Hungarian GP, because in a certain way it was one of the best races I ever had in Formula One, but it didn't end as the others, with a win," said Massa. "It was a shame, because I really think that me and the team deserved the success: we had a perfect race at a very important moment of the championship. Unfortunately we couldn't bring home the ten points we already had in our hands: it was really frustrating, but these things sometimes happen in motor sports. "When the engine failed I had a strange feeling. It was like a nightmare and I wanted to wake up, but I couldn't, because I was already awake. It was an incredible disappointment. This sport can be really cruel." Despite his retirement, Massa is still in the championship fight, eight points behind McLaren's Lewis Hamilton. The Brazilian says he is staying cool about his chances, but he reckons Ferrari cannot afford any more mistakes. "Looking at the standings at least I can stay calm, because not even Lewis won, but we can't throw away points like that," he said. "We lost ten, but the positive aspect is, that we've demonstrated that we're strong. "The team has done some great work over the whole weekend, in terms of strategy and eliminating the problems we had in England and Germany. "We've worked hard to make the car competitive again and this is a good thing for the upcoming races. But we've got to resolve the remaining problems: we have to be as competitive as at Budapest, but we need to raise our reliability. We can't repeat certain mistakes: we don't have any more excuses."
**** happen's! I was crushed when Massa's engine let go but that is racing right and no matter how well a team has prepared their equipment the most unlikely scenario can happen. I remember watching a Mansell/Piquet battle back in '85, I believe it was, and there were only about 2-3 lap's to go with Piquet leading and I said outloud to myself "Man I wish Piquet's engine would blowup"! Less than one lap later it did expire and Mansell cruised to victory. My meaning is that imho there was nothing that Ferrari could have done, **** happen's especially with an 850hp 2.4ltr HIGHLY stressed engine.
If this were Alonso or Hamilton making these statements, a lot of folks here would have the long knives out...
IMHO I don't think so as Alonso would have never said "we" as he would have excluded himself as being part of the blame or heh "team". Felipe is just being honest and realistic and the whole team knows they all have to pull together as there is little time left and even a mistake that costs one championship point is too much. He learned alot from Michael about team being we not me.
well, he's saying this partly because Monza isn't far. and it was Monza last year when suspension issues put him outta the race & championship.
i was thinkin' the same thing...funny how sentiments here differ depending on the 'source' of the yapping! but it's ok, Cuz it's Shumassa, and he drove an 'EPIC' race that day
Actually I think it's quite the opposite on this site. There has been more bad mouthing Massa than any driver before IMHO. What happened to the Massa Sucks thread? I was one of the few early on that said give the guy a break he is better than most have given him credit. Why I like him? He's got more "heart" than anyone else out there and he is very talented. I also feel he is one of the more humble talented drivers in the field. Listen to how he speaks next time. He had time with Michael to learn how to control his emotions and be a team player to boot. Yes, I agree he might not have the ultimate in talent, but he has a desire to win like no one else in F1 currently. That's one reason I don't care too much for Kimi as he has all the talent in the world and its just a day at the office for him or at least that is how he seems in front of the camera and his actions on the track.
+1 and he is the most motivated driver in the field from appearances. Certainly in action at Hungary he appeared beyond motivated. LH is probably as motivated as well. I dont see that type of motivation from other drivers. I think he believes in himself a bit more than he did last year. I am a strong Kimi fan but Massa has my attention as much as Kimi. Agreed on his humility even if he lacks a bit of talent compared to others in the field. Sometimes talent isnt enough when someone chooses not to use it or exploit it to its maximum. Ferrari seem awfully pleased with Felipe at this point. Frankly the heat is on Kimi to produce at this point not Massa. He seems to be producing, unfortunately for both of them the car is not reliable enough.
Really? Here we go again with someone playing fast and loose with the facts. Ok for Massa’s first DNF due to an expired engine in Australia Kimi also had DNF for an expired engine. Left that one out didn’t you. What you also left out was that even if Massa’s engine had stayed together he was pretty much out of the points race. Kimi on the other hand was well into the points when his let go. But, since it was near the end of the race and so many others had dropped out he got 1 point out of it. The next race Massa threw his race away with yet another spin. Kimi took the win. Massa rebounded took a win, Kimi took one, Massa took the next one, while at Monaco Kimi got screwed by the team for fitting tires too close to the start. Because of which he finished out of the points. He posted the fastest lap of the race and had been on Massa’s tail when he got the penalty. Not his fault so add that into your bag of left out facts. Canada, well we know how that went down for Kimi. Hami plowed into the back of him and took him out, no points. Once again NOT HIS FAULT. Just as good as an engine going kablooie! Add that to the bag too. France Massa wins with Kimi right on his tail with a broken car. Still manages to set fastest lap. If the exhaust hadn’t broken he probably would have won, but we’re not talking about probably here we’re talking about facts. Once again not his fault, but he salvaged the second place. England comes around, it’s a wet race and Kimi manages to salvage fourth place while Massa is spinning more often than a ballerina during the Nutcracker. Massa gains zero points for his poor driving. Germany and they both have a “poor” race. Massa does a better job grabs third, Kimi sixth. Both take home points. The last race Massa’s engine blows and Kimi takes third. So given all the problems Kimi has had to deal with, an engine failure, penalty incurred by the team that left him out of the points, being taken out by Hamilton (out of the points), broken exhaust… While except for the two engine failures ALL of Massa’s woes were his own doing. And the first race even without the engine failure he would have been out of the points. So don’t come in and say Massa would be blowing Kimi away if it hadn’t been for the engine failures because as we can see, if we play that game I could pull out all of the things that have happened to Kimi that were out of HIS control and say “well if all of that hadn’t happened Kimi would be sooooo far ahead.” The truth is if Massa hadn’t made all of those mistakes even with the engine failures he’d be out in front. That’s what you left out. He’s behind in the championship because of his own mistakes while Kimi, for the most part, is behind (but still ahead of Massa) due to circumstances out of his control.
Take away Canada and France from Kimi and see how much further he would be. That works both ways, you know.
all of those circumstances add up to the nature of an F1 season...but some people can't let go of 'woulda, coulda, shoulda', and cry over spilt milk...but yeah, you're right, despite the ups and downs, things out of his control, Kimi is STILL in good shape to bag his second WDC...
Bottom line: NONE of these guys can afford to make mistakes at this stage of the season. This is where the pressure gets turned up to 10, and you no longer have that "rest of the season" to make up for errors or bad luck. I consider it a 4-horse race still (sorry HK), and hopefully it will all happen cleanly on the track.
Massa seems like "the little engine that could" these days. All the best to the team for the up and coming races.
Seems to me there were a number of pit errors that Massa had nothing to do with that cost him dearly along with an engine change or two prematurely that started from the back where he made remarkable strides up through the field to garner points. Track position and seconds in the pits are all that seperate the top teams from scoring points at the end it seems. Don't get me wrong, I pull for both drivers, but Kimi has had his number of spins "Montreal" and running into the back of others, Monaco, so you can't say either are squeaky clean Prost style. If we are going to quote every lap of every race, including qualifying blunders I think you will find Felipe has been more consistent but hampered by mistakes by the team. Silverstone I agree was a travesty but I wonder if it were for the fact that they gambled for a dry setup which suffice to say was another team mistake. For the life of me I don't know why the team kept either of their drivers out on inters instead of full wets as long as they did when there was a clear disadvantage. I think frankly if neither driver wins the WDC it is more to do with mistakes made by others either running the team or part of the team either at the factory or a the track. If anyone thinks the team is as good without the Brawn, Todt, Shumacher era they are clearly in denial.
You sort of forgot when Kimi smashed into the toro rosso in Monaco. It is what it is. But all in all it is simple to see that Kimi is not performing as a WDC should. You can pile on all the excuses you want but the fact is that he is in one of the best cars on the track and he has not won a race in almost 4 months.....and there is no excuse for that.
