Massa's Crew (SPOILER)

Probably nothing to it but it just seems to me that the team is consistently making mistakes when it comes to managing, servicing and taking care of Massa. We all know he has made mistakes on the track from time to time as well but has anyone else seen that the team consistently botches things up when it comes to Massa on an almost semi weekly basis. How many errors can fall onto one drivers car? I found it interesting what the response was from the Ferrari team when Peter Windsor was talking to them about Massa being a WDC and the answer immediately shifted to Kimi becoming a repeat champ. Is the team really pulling for him to be #1 in the championship

I am not a conspiracy theorist generally, i just see some patterns and trends here. Does anyone else see this?

 

well, from race 1 it's been happening to Kova...i just hope they don't screw up Massa tho. don't forget tho, Kimi too, they made a mistake, and was forced to do a drive penalty.

 

There is a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that most of us dont know about. As I have said before, you will never again see both championships wrapped up with mulitple races left to go. Infact I believe that is the very reason MS retired earlier than he wanted to.

 

No one has shown that an oil flag was out on the corner before Massa went off.
Lineball whether his engineer blew it by not realising and warning him, imho.

 

The very reason MS retired earlier than he wanted to was that he was beaten twice by your friend Alonso. I understand that is quite a bitter pill for you to swallow.

 

That is an absolutely absured comment concerning Schumacher´s retirement. It had nothing to do with Alonso. His possible retirement in 2006 became public in early 2005. Do the math.

 

(from autosport)

Felipe Massa says he could have qualified in the top four for the British Grand Prix if not for a problem in the dying moments of qualifying.

The Ferrari driver will start from a season-worst ninth place after being unable to complete his final run because of a problem to release a tyre from his car ahead of his last flying lap.

Massa, leading the championship for the first time in his career, believes he is in for a difficult race tomorrow, but the Brazilian has vowed to do his best to score a good result.

"It's a real shame ending up ninth on the grid because of a problem with my pitstop," said Massa. "I lost so much time as the mechanics had trouble changing the right rear wheel and I was unable to start my second run.

"I think I could have done a good time, maybe not enough to take pole but at least good enough for a place on the front two rows.

"There was a lot of wind today and the balance of the car was not as good as yesterday and we were not as quick as at last week's test.

"Tomorrow I can definitely expect to be fighting all race long to move up the order and I will do all I can to bring home a good result: but it won't be easy."

 

MS said many times, he'll retire when a younger gun come along and start beating him on a frequent basis. Fred is the person did it, and your spot on about this.

 

You are right of course. He said he MIGHT retire in 2006; then a younger guy beat him, and he did.

 

Again, that was not the reason he retired. He could have called it quits after losing the WDC in 2005 with a dismal chassis. With the 2007 chassis, MS would have won the WDC over Hamilton, Alonso, and Massa (or Raikkonen if at Ferrari).

 

+1

Also the prospect of being paired with Kimi didn't appeal to MS.


But coming back to the original thread:

How about the last GP in France? It was Kimi's to win, yet his car had a failure. Shift happens.

 

My conspiracy theory sez MS didn't want to loose face/credibility when Kimi would have been his non conformist ( as in not #2 )
team-mate.
Better to retire on top.

 

This is what i was talking about, it''s probably just bad luck but how many times is the team going to F something up for Massa. He screwed up his first two races himself this year but other than that has been near flawless. I'd like to see the team get things right and get their #2 a WDC

 

Therein lies the problem: #2s don't get the WDCs.

 

The so called #1 became #1 because the so called #2 gifted him the DC.
In that sense you're right. He didn't win it. He got it.

 

Wrong it had everything to do with grabbing Kimi while he was available. Michael still whipped Kimi in his final race.

 

You know that MS would have destroyed Kimi in 2007, right? Look at the way Kimi performed in the first half of the season, could barely handle Massa. MS would have blown him away.

 

It's amazing how you have the inside scoop and are certain of the facts. You must be great friends with Schumy!

 

There is simply no excuse for them to continue to botch of the servicing of his car. Both KR and FM are racking up points and as long as they keep on pace the WCC should be in the bag. Why does Ferrari care (if they do) which one wins the WDC. I surely hope they are not going to keep Massa down. I find him to be an exciting driver (with flaws but most have them), he actually has a personality (KR is about the most boring person I have ever heard speak) and someone who is truly passionate about his job and appears to give 110% at performing and getting better every day. I would like to see FM win the WDC, c'mon SF crew get it together and service his damn car right more than a week in a row. He s about the faster qualifier int he field when the crew does not screw it up and has shown consistently an ability to translate Poles into wins

 

I wonder if the team actually knows what many F1 fans have always suspected about Massa.

 

Luck is largely a matter of preparation.

Ferrari has been having bad luck .... since they lost Ross and Jean.

 

Ferrari apologise to Massa
Eurosport - Sat, 05 Jul 21:01:00 2008
Ferrari apologised to Formula One championship leader Felipe Massa after letting the Brazilian down in British Grand Prix qualifying.

Massa, the first Brazilian to lead the standings since the late Ayrton Senna in 1993, qualified ninth for Sunday's race after mechanics struggled to change his car's right rear wheel in the final session.
The delay meant the winner of three races this season, who had also been fastest in Friday practice, did not have enough time to get around the circuit to start a second timed lap before the chequered flag.
"This is definitely not the result we expected nor the one we wanted," said team principal Stefano Domenicali in a statement.
"Problems such as the one that befell Felipe are serious and I am very sorry for him as we prevented him from giving it his best shot.
"We need to understand why our performance, even taking into account all the unknowns regarding the various strategy choices, was not up to our usual standard."
Massa leads BMW-Sauber's Robert Kubica by two points after eight races with Ferrari team mate and world champion a further three adrift.
Raikkonen, winner at Silverstone last year, qualified third and will expect to slash his team mate's lead or overtake him entirely after Sunday's race.
If Massa's hopes of victory appeared to have evaporated, he still had reasonable hopes of picking up some points in what could turn out to be a wet race at Silverstone.
"I think I could have done a good time, maybe not enough to take pole but at least good enough for a place on the front two rows," he said.
"Tomorrow I can definitely expect to be fighting all race long to move up the order and I will do all I can to bring home a good result. But it won't be easy."
Reuters

 

+1 spot on Ron.

IMO, It was very clear that FA was no real threat to MS concerning talent and ability and speed. After Ferrari finally got it's act together in the last half of the 06 season and gave MS a car that wasn't the equivilant to a yugo, we saw MS give FA a lesson on how you race in F1.

 

No, Ron just pays attention.

 

Many in here just dont get it and I dont blame them because a dedicated F1 fan does not want to here something that may ruin the sport in their mind.
MS was wrapping up many seasons early and it was costing the FIA and F1 millions of dollars. After all who would go to a race if the WDC and WCC are both wrapped up in August or early September? Also the tv revenues take a beating and that is where most of the cash comes in. So what does the FIA do about this? Well they tell Ferrari to tell MS to back off and not win so many races so early because it is killing them finacially. MS tells Ferrari that he is here to race and there is no way he will not put out 100%.

Now the FIA has other options and one of them is to change the tire rule. Now in order to do this so as to disadvantage MS and Ferrari they would have to get Bridgestone on their side and that was easy all they had to do was promise Bridgestone that they would be the only tire supplier in 2007. Well we all saw what happened in 2005. Ferrari won nothing after winning 13 races in 2004. Ferrari did not give in as they tried to adapt but could not in time and Alonso walked to victory. In 2006 the tire rule was overturned and it took Ferrari half a season to adapt and adapt they did as they won 7 of the last 10 races with MS suffering a blown engine to lose it all to Alonso.

The FIA sees Ferrari once again getting on top of things and tells LM of Ferrari to do something about MS as they feared 2007 would be another runaway for MS and Ferrari thus costing them millions yet again. Luca got on Mikes case and again Mike said "I race to win period" Luca and Mike were having it out for the last 3 months of the season and that is why we kept hearing all these conflicting stories about if and when Mike would retire. September arrived and Mike was given an ultamatum....."Play it our way or we take Kimi and we need an answer now'" so Mike told them again that he will only race to win and he did and Luca announced Mikes retirement in Sept. game over for Mike.
Last season we all saw what happened as Mclaren was stripped of the WCC points only. To strip them of the Drivers points as well would only have accomplished what they were trying to get rid of when Mike was around. So the season went on and Mclaren were told to lose it what every way they could. Tickets and adverising sold in the fly away asian races and Ferrari won what they should have all along. This is scripting at its best and its all in the name of money......Like I said before..You will never see the WDC and the WCC wrapped up with more that 2 races to go......Just watch and see. If it becomes that obvious agian then I will spend my Sundays taking the car out in the country to stretch its legs and think back to the days when racing was racing. Mosley and Ecclbones have to go or its over.