That's because he went backwards. Like he just about always does. A good race for Midfield Massa is one where he holds station.
It's not easy trying to make up the time he lost due to the poor strategy of leaving him out on shot tyres, still I think he could have done better as well, but he is not a crap driver by any means
His pit strategy will always be determined only after Alonso's has been set. Nothing wrong with that even if it leaves him wrong footed at times. The team has no interest in handicapping him (he had the shortest stop of the race) unnecessarily.
Discounting a difference of 40 seconds in F1 as unimportant left me speechless. A sport where advantages are counted in fraction of seconds. Oh well.
LOL! Good catch. Much as I crap on Webber, Ferrari should have JUMPED at the chance to have him in the 2nd seat. I think history will show that Massa ought to have been dumped a couple years ago.
His situation with the team is probably toxic at this point...but I can't help but think that his ship has sailed. He would have been perfect two years ago. Ferrari are out at least 1 WDC and WCC thanks to Massa not taking points off of other drivers.
I beg to differ..... His "side" of the garage are almost certainly behind him more than ever. [Unless he's a complete *******, but I don't think so.] They'll do their own thing, screw Mr No Balls. They'll "forget" to share data. They won't go out of their way to "help" the other side. Etc. Poison!..... A different debate, but yeah, "+1" Cheers, Ian PS - I'm not gonna comment on the (lack of) significance in a 40 second gap.
Massa does his team job well. In Australia, he finished P4- better than Hamilton and Webber. In Malaysia, he finished P5- better than Raikkonen. In China, he placed P6. In Driver Standings, Massa is P5 with 30 points, which puts Ferrari in P2 for Constructor's Standings.
He still sucks though! Pretty much any rookie that bats a little above their average for a race or two should be taking Phils seat according to the haters. Then these same rooks struggle for a while. Select the next (Jules B right now ). Rinse. Repeat. Cheers, Ian
Yeah, I mean, look at Perez... all the haters were screaming for him to take Massa's seat last year after he fluked a podum or two... and look at him go this year! With Perez on board Ferrari would already have been leading the WCC this year! No... wait.......
I am convinced Massa is a good driver. Not stellar by any means. Just an average F1 driver, destined to be #2 on any decent Scuderia. Once in a while, he pulls a strong (albeit brief) performance executing a brilliant pass, or an excellent start, but what counts is consistency. In my mind Massa is a consistent "mid fielder". There is no denying this. His is a 5th to 7th place driver. If he does not perform extremely well in Bahrain, one of his favourite tracks (won there twice), then I am done with this guy.
There are 2 Massa's The Massa before his accident and the Massa after his accident. So, when referring to "Massa", you have to reference which one you are talking about.
I still like Massa, but I like kobi more.....then again he's my homie Money is not everything....... Lack of money is everything
FYI, the lap times when Alonso pitted were still okay on the old softs, and so it seemed okay for massa to stay out, unfortunately, that extra lap was the one where the tyres hit the cliff, and his sectors rocketed up. He still had his chances, but as I've said before, I think massa needs fresh air in front of him to get his best, put him into traffic and ask him to pass, and he starts to struggle. Alonso scythed through, and Lewis behind him too, like a knife through butter, massa looks a bit apprehensive, and in f1, apprehensive equals too slow
yeah, sometimes, but others he seems to do well , a little erratic but still a good driver. I've never seen him do a Rubinho like the German GP many moons ago where Rubins won when that nutter came out on the track. Rubens really drove well that day , I can't remember Felipe ever performing like that
Does anyone actually watch the races? "He went backwards". Not on track. On the first stint, he was right behind Alonso. Alonso stopped from first and came out fifth. Massa stopped from first and came out ... twelfth. He then proceeded to pass people left and right and was fifth by his second stop. Where he was tossed back to twelfth again. He then stopped. He just held position his entire third stint. Massa may be putting a face on it by blaming graining, but that's another example of Rob getting on the radio and holding him back. Does anyone really think he couldn't have passed Hulk, if he wasn't told not to? But the only car we saw pass Massa on track was Vettel on fresh tires after Massa had been circulating a while. If you've been watching, this has been the scenario for a year or so: Massa gets dumped out of the top ten every time he goes into the pits. And Rob is constantly on the radio holding him back, telling him to "preserve his tires". Preserve them for what? So they can get a refund at the end of the race? Ferrari has a long history of *NOT* caring about the second car. When they had Rubens let Schumi by, Rubens needed the points more than Shumi did, but the WDC was the focus, not the WCC or the position of the second car. That's always been my biggest disappointment with the Scuderia: when they have the package to dominate, they sluff off anyway. Ferrari had it right when they let Kimi and Massa compete with each other ... until Monza. The "two Massas"? Try "two Ferraris". The Ferrari where Kimi and Massa competed with each other. But after the accident, Massa came back to a Ferrari where Santander had bought Alonso "star" billing. (Does no one remember Kimi, with a year left on his contract, suddenly going off to WRC when Alonso was bought into the team?) Remember last year? "You're too close to Alonso". Don't make ego boy nervous.