SchueyFan Wrote:

> 2008 was a little different though, he was running in the points before an engine failure at Melbourne and was running 2nd in Malaysia before spinning out (which must give him nightmares), not to mention being on pole.


It shows that you CAN throw away a championship before it's really settled down. Massa ended up 1 point behind Hamilton (even ignoring the Belgium results changes he could've won the title, if he'd finished 2nd in Malaysia with everything else the same).

yup, every point counts.

though i'll always blame Hungary. i mean he did everything right, and was a secured victory

SchueyFan Wrote:
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> 2008 was a little different though, he was running
> in the points before an engine failure at
> Melbourne and was running 2nd in Malaysia before
> spinning out (which must give him nightmares), not
> to mention being on pole.


Not really. 2008 he had arguably the best car, so he should´ve been winning races or on the podium at the very least. This year, he´s got the 5th? best car so finishing in the points (7th something like that) at the minute is realistically the best he can hope to achieve. The problem is he keeps making mistakes and goes in to "panic mode" just like he did in 2008. Nobody is expecting him to be winning races or even podiums at the minute, but he has to be at least somewhere near Alonso. If his year goes the way of last year and he´s finishing races in 6th and 7th even 8th, as bad as that could be with a competitive car, there is no point replacing him mid-season. However, mixing it with the back of the field and genuinely racing the Caterhams is not good enough, if that´s the way its going to go, then Ferrari have nothing to lose trying somebody else (Jaime), just not yet.

Slash Wrote:
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> yup, every point counts.
>
> though i'll always blame Hungary. i mean he did
> everything right, and was a secured victory


Don't mention Hungary, that still breaks my heart!

It's a tough call on what to do, in the same time it wod take a new driver to get to speed with the car without testing, you would have to assume massa shod be used to how the car behaves and be fighting for consistent points. I think they have no option but to keep him til brazil.

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2013 - Nando must come through..

When Massa was good.. He tended to be dominant and usually from the front... Pole position.. Lights to flag victory. So clearly he has some talent. Though it's also clear that the direction of the Ferrari at the time suited him more because Kimi couldn't be bothered to shout loud enough for the engineers to listen to his widely acclaimed excellent technical feedback. Also Michael Schumacher was quite useful mentor to Massa whist Kimi understandably scoffed at the idea.

Since then.. Things have changed.. Alonso replaced Kimi and Alonso will bang heads until he gets what he wants so already Massa's advantage on the technical front has evapourated.. Then he's also lost Schumacher's mentorship because Schumi got bored and returned to racing.

Not many drivers out there could get close to matching Alonso in the same car. The problem for Massa he's not just a little way behind Alonso... It's almost as if he's driving in a different class!

Something to note.

Massa was 4 tenths of Alonso, that was what decided getting into q3 and not.

I can remember several occasions where Button has been +0.4 tenths and nearer 0.8 tenths slower than Lewis.. big difference though.

The problem Massa faces is that the midfield is once again close. Certainly the lack of EBD has made things in that area of the grid very tight. What it results in is starting on the grid in a relatively calm, clean zone against starting on the grid alongside a couple rookies, some eager beavers and some accident prone drivers.

Let's give Massa another few races.

If he doesn't perform, I really hope Ferrari get Bianchi in. Failing that, Trulli!

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

Why would Trulli be any better than Massa? He wasn't even good enough for Caterham.

chet Wrote:
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> Something to note.
>
> Massa was 4 tenths of Alonso, that was what
> decided getting into q3 and not.
>
> I can remember several occasions where Button has
> been +0.4 tenths and nearer 0.8 tenths slower than
> Lewis.. big difference though.

Everyone including Button himself knows that Hamilton is ultimately the quicker driver. The difference is that Button more often than not (certainly since he's been at McLaren) recovers a lot of lost ground during the race (Korea 10, Malaysia 12 excepted). Add to that that Button has reduced the gap to Hamilton in qualifying to the stage that overall he often has the overall upper hand during the weekend.

Contrary to Massa who predominantly qualifies behind Alonso and continues to loose ground in the race. He actually out qualified Alonso a couple of times last year.. But still spent his time either staying still, going backwards or swapping insurance details with Hamilton. It can't all be down to Alonso getting preferential treatment as it's in Ferrari's interests to have Massa finish next car down the road to Alonso and as close as possible.

I think basically Massa simply hasn't got to grips with current generation of cars and tyres and as a result his performance has suffered and his confidence plummeted, I think he actually made a very strong recovery from hus Hungary accident and it has little affect on his current performance.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/2012 12:09PM by J i m.

jbnd05 Wrote:
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> Why would Trulli be any better than Massa? He
> wasn't even good enough for Caterham.

And you can see from how Petrov is going against Kovalainen that Trulli had lost quite a lot of pace towards the end.

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X (@ed24f1)

Quote
swapping insurance details with Hamilton

Comedy Gold +1

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[www.mediafire.com] Some say you should click it, you know you want to. [www.gp4central.com] <----GP4 Central

SchueyFan Wrote:
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> jbnd05 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Why would Trulli be any better than Massa? He
> > wasn't even good enough for Caterham.
>
> And you can see from how Petrov is going against
> Kovalainen that Trulli had lost quite a lot of
> pace towards the end.


Trulli is a driver with a very narrow band of performance... So narrow it is almost digital. He was either terrific or he was the "Trulli Train"

His continued whinging about power illustrates quite well how unless a car was absolutely spot on perfect for him, then he couldn't perform. Petrov's main weakness.. is being a bit crash happy but otherwise he's quite a good driver really and another who if has to be labeled a pay driver then one you'd welcome with open arms.