Recent performances of Felipe Massa

[mx_tifoso]

Massa used to be error free

Same reaction here. If anything, he's become more consistent now. The spin in front of Alonso at the 2006 Bahrain(?) GP was epic.

[raymondu999]

Well around 2008 midseason he started becoming more consistent. He had a massive midseason in 2008

[andrew]

Massa used to be error free

No he didn't.

It wasn't until he had a year out as the Ferrari test driver with some specialist training from some other driver that Massa became largely error free.

[horse]

Echos of the Schumacher/Barrichello era ring strongly for me. Ferrari knows that formula to success. You need the right kind of second driver to make that work though. Irvine was stubborn and there isn't a prouder guy on the grid than Rubens.

I agree with others that say that Massa does not have the strength of character for this situation. Few would, I believe.

He's willing to do his job for the team, but no more. He needs to move on.

[Gerhard Berger]

in my book massa is the type of driver very much reliant on his environment.He needs to know everybody is believing in him and supporting him to be able to raise his game into height we have already seen.In this he is a quite ordinary character as most people in the world would be able to dig deeper in themselves when positively motivated from an outside source.
Massa has shown in the years before that his strength is vulnerable and he showed more than once races during wich the car was more driving with him than the other way round..
to me the Ferrari story is quickly coming to an end for him IF he has not a golden moment and a good chunk of fortune coming his way soon(would anyone think Ferrari will not already negotiate with other drivers at this time?).
Felipe has earned a lot of money at Ferrari he´s not an old man and maybe he can
emulate something like Barrichello did with his career even though he is just the nearly man...who knows?

I agree with this - he is the Frentzen of this generation (though Frentzen was probably a bit more talented).

[Gerhard Berger]

So many excuses for Massa. He had every opportunity to to begin the season on the front foot ahead of his teammate after the start he made in Australia, but he just fell back straight away.

[SiLo]

I think it would be good for him to pop over to Mercedes if Schumi retires at the end of this year. Just to get out of Ferrari which is obviously a team that doesn't care about him much, especially when they favour Alonso is such a blatant way.

[shelly]

So many excuses for Massa. He had every opportunity to to begin the season on the front foot ahead of his teammate after the start he made in Australia, but he just fell back straight away.

massa has had to swap position with alonso as soon as alonso got near him; last year in Oz(slghtly different stuation, also with team orders formally banned) no order was issued and alonso finished behind massa IIRC.
Now alonso himself in interviews does not count massa as a possible title contender, wheres I think he did at the beginning of last season (when he had to overtake him with a sly move in box lane).

Now the team is much more alonso oriented than last year; it was not so oriented in 2006 with massa and schumacher (in turkey 2006 no swap position order was issued even if it would have been very useful in driver's title chase -and back then turkey was vry late in the championship)

[Gerhard Berger]

massa has had to swap position with alonso as soon as alonso got near him; last year in Oz(slghtly different stuation, also with team orders formally banned) no order was issued and alonso finished behind massa IIRC.

Is there any evidence of this? Seems like its pure speculation on your part.

Now alonso himself in interviews does not count massa as a possible title contender, wheres I think he did at the beginning of last season (when he had to overtake him with a sly move in box lane).

Do you have a quote for this? From what i've read, he said 2 title contenders finished behind him, which doesn't necessarily mean he is discounting Massa. He also said before the season started that he expects Massa to be a title contender.

Now the team is much more alonso oriented than last year; it was not so oriented in 2006 with massa and schumacher (in turkey 2006 no swap position order was issued even if it would have been very useful in driver's title chase -and back then turkey was vry late in the championship)

There was no team order in Turkey 2006 because Alonso was between Massa and Schumacher.

[nipo]

So many excuses for Massa. He had every opportunity to to begin the season on the front foot ahead of his teammate after the start he made in Australia, but he just fell back straight away.

massa has had to swap position with alonso as soon as alonso got near him; last year in Oz(slghtly different stuation, also with team orders formally banned) no order was issued and alonso finished behind massa IIRC.
Now alonso himself in interviews does not count massa as a possible title contender, wheres I think he did at the beginning of last season (when he had to overtake him with a sly move in box lane).

Now the team is much more alonso oriented than last year; it was not so oriented in 2006 with massa and schumacher (in turkey 2006 no swap position order was issued even if it would have been very useful in driver's title chase -and back then turkey was vry late in the championship)

=D> =D> =D>

Except maybe I think Alonso still mentioned something like he and his teammate are equals and there's no number 1... Anyway all of us knows that's BS, so whatever.

It was OBVIOUS that Massa's task at Albert Park was to salvage some good points for Mr. Alonso, given the latter's poor start. He slowed down both himself and Button and when Button got past he suddenly becomes defenseless against Alonso and let him by in a few corners.

Good teamwork there =D> =D> =D>

However, as much as I don't like Alonso, I must say I think he's just outright faster than Massa. In truth I still don't understand how Massa blew Kimi away in '08 and the first half of '09...

Massa is not top-notch, most apparent in his rain performance, which usually sucks big time. I kinda like the guy I think he's honest and approachable, but he's not one of the greats (even if he had won '08).

[shelly]

massa has had to swap position with alonso as soon as alonso got near him; last year in Oz(slghtly different stuation, also with team orders formally banned) no order was issued and alonso finished behind massa IIRC.

Is there any evidence of this? Seems like its pure speculation on your part.

Now alonso himself in interviews does not count massa as a possible title contender, wheres I think he did at the beginning of last season (when he had to overtake him with a sly move in box lane).

Do you have a quote for this? From what i've read, he said 2 title contenders finished behind him, which doesn't necessarily mean he is discounting Massa. He also said before the season started that he expects Massa to be a title contender.

Now the team is much more alonso oriented than last year; it was not so oriented in 2006 with massa and schumacher (in turkey 2006 no swap position order was issued even if it would have been very useful in driver's title chase -and back then turkey was vry late in the championship)

There was no team order in Turkey 2006 because Alonso was between Massa and Schumacher.

I have no evidence except what I saw on the tv: immediate swap.

Alonso saying "two contenders behind" implies he is discounting massa as a contender.

In turkey 2006, alonso was second because ferrari had not swapped positions before safety car came in, and schuey had to queue behind massa for pitstop, ending up losing 2ndplace to alonso.

[Gerhard Berger]

I have no evidence except what I saw on the tv: immediate swap.

That's not evidence of team orders. Just evidence that Alonso overtook Massa. Whether it was team orders or not, we do not know.

Alonso saying "two contenders behind" implies he is discounting massa as a contender.

Or Button? Again we don't know. Seems like you are jumping to conclusions.

In turkey 2006, alonso was second because ferrari had not swapped positions before safety car came in, and schuey had to queue behind massa for pitstop, ending up losing 2ndplace to alonso.

I forgot about that. Fair point.

[myurr]

I have no evidence except what I saw on the tv: immediate swap.

That's not evidence of team orders. Just evidence that Alonso overtook Massa. Whether it was team orders or not, we do not know.

Hmm...

Alonso saying "two contenders behind" implies he is discounting massa as a contender.

Or Button? Again we don't know. Seems like you are jumping to conclusions.

So which driver out of Button, Webber and Massa do you think he doesn't see as a championship contender? Honestly?

[nipo]

So which driver out of Button, Webber and Massa do you think he doesn't see as a championship contender? Honestly?

No point discussing this further. He wants "evidence", like this is a court or sth... when in fact everything is plain obvious.

[bhall]

It should be noted that in 9 appearances in Australia during Massa's career, the 9th place finish he achieved last weekend was his third highest result there ever.

Just saying.