Video: What did Massa say to Alonso?

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Here’s video footage of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso’s argument after the European Grand Prix.

Alonso passed Massa with a handful of laps to spare at the Nurburgring, taking the lead from him in a smart pass around the outside at the Valvoline Kurve that ended with the two banging wheels.

It looked to me that if anyone had a right to be angry about it, it was Alonso, who was clearly ahead of Massa when the Ferrari touched the McLaren. But Massa looks like the agitated one, although I can’t tell what they’re saying. Any interpreters out there?

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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33 comments on “Video: What did Massa say to Alonso?”

  1. Sorry not a translator, but it seems as though Alonso was very level headed and even offered to try to explain the situation from his side.

    I must say though I love how Massa wears his emotions on his sleeve.

  2. Definitely interpreters required. But which language are they speaking, Spanish (Alonso being Spanish) or Portuguese (Massa, Brazilian)? In long debate with my wife who speaks Spanish pretty well (and I have an ear for Portuguese, having known a few in Africa), we have come to the conclusion that it’s neither; it’s Italian. At one point Alonso says, “Andiamo”, meaning “Let’s go,” in Italian, and “tutto il monde” is mentioned at another, meaning “the whole world” or “everyone” in the same language. So we reckon it’s Italian but neither of us has enough of that language to interpret more than the odd word or phrase.

    It is interesting that Italian should be their chosen form of communication; English is more usually the lingua franca of F1. Who would have guessed that Alonso is so fluent in Italian? Perhaps there is more to the rumours of a future move to Ferrari than meets the eye (or ear)… ;)

  3. Ben Goldberg
    24th July 2007, 0:21

    You seem to be right Clive, because I found this translation and well, just take a look…

    Alonso: “You broke my sidepod there…, go and have a look at it!”
    Massa: “Go **** yourself! You’ve won and you say something like this, ******, you win and say something like this.”
    Alonso: “I fought with Heidfeld, i fought with everyone, but you can’t do that.”
    Massa: (Touching Alonso) “Try to learn something”
    Alonso: “You try to learn something”
    Massa: “Try to learn something!”
    Alonso: “Try to learn something, i fought with all the world today, and with 3 laps to go, we touch!”
    Massa: (sitting on his chair) “Good job!”
    Alonso: “Good job!”
    Massa: (Standing up, sarcastic tone) “I did that on purpose, like i did that on porpuse in Barcelona!”
    Alonso: “Ok, ok…”
    Massa: (Touching Alonso) “Try to learn something”
    Massa: (Looking to someone who invite him to relax) “That’s him!”
    Fia official: “Quite”

  4. Nikos Darzentas
    24th July 2007, 0:24

    Alonso said something to Massa that got him going while he was playing “level headed”, and that something became clear afterwards in their statements: he told Massa that he thought the Brazilian touched him intentionally, for which Alonso later publicly apologised… it was all over the news, how could you miss it?

    you should actually be commenting on Alonso’s (usual) silly theatrics showing the tyre mark on his car to the cameraman and gesturing “no no”

    I won’t be surprised if M. Schumacher is sucked into this, blamed for teaching Massa naughty driving tactics…

    as far as I’m concerned, we’re seeing brilliant drivers at work in very competitive cars

  5. these 2 guys are hilarious :-) if the title fight goes down the wire between these 2, we are in for loads of fun :-)

  6. Clive, I think Alonso learned Italian from his days in the lower formulae and in Minardi. Why not English? No idea. hee.

  7. You got that a bit wrong Clive.

    Basically Alphonso, since he got off the car, was complaining to Massa.

    The video, wich I post a more complete one, just confirms this. Alphonso keeps on complaining, telling Massa “You did that on purpose”, and Massa looses his patience, and goes like “you win and you still are whining? Grow up!”

    The thing is, Alphonso has no humility of any kind, and always goes crybabying about everything, if he’s not wining. Now we see that even when he wins he whines. And had to apologize after, obviously.

    He is not very fluent in english, but that is a cultural thing, spanish people don’t like english/america very much, they are very conservative about stuff like that, and their accent is more like reading english in spanish, not giving it the proper accent. For example, he calls Lewis “Luis”, the spanish more similar sound. I really hate that, bollocks if you ask me.

  8. Journeyer: Ah yes, it could be Minardi where Alonso learned his Italian. Was forgetting that…

    Haplo: It’s all in how you see it, I guess, Haplo. Looks to me like a minor squabble in the heat of the moment that Alonso soon puts behind him. Sure, he pointed out the tyre marks on the sidepod to the assembled observers, but I don’t think Massa was even present at the time. And yes, the Spaniard is the first to say anything about the incident. But it sure doesn’t take Massa long to become pretty animated – and stay that way.

    As for Alonso’s English, I think he does much better than the majority of English people would do when attempting Spanish. Most of the drivers are fairly fluent in English as that is the language of almost all the teams and Alonso succeeds in getting his point across.

  9. Ben Goldberg
    24th July 2007, 6:19

    Did anyone hear how Alonso pronounced “apologize” in the post race conference? He said it about two or three times before I realized what he was saying. Of course he has an accent but he really made that word his own.

  10. Alonso speaks several languages, and Italian is one of them. He took part in a lot of races in Italy when he was a boy and in his years in Renault, he had several Italian parners (Fisico, Trulli…).

    I think Alonso was upset because he is not fool. He knows perfectly how is Massas’s beahavour when he drives. In Barcelona he did something similar to this (he had a good teacher in Schumacher). Alonso just told him that he had had a bad behaviour and Felipe began to insult him (some things he said were in Brasilian; that’s why it was not easy to understand him). I think Massa was really annoyed due to the great way Alonso overtook him while it was raining. Massa’s last laps with rain were pathetic.

    Fernando was very polite when he apologized in front of the cameras, but he was right. Massa is as dirty as Shumi, but luckily, less effective.

  11. Nikos Darzentas
    24th July 2007, 9:18

    thank you Diana for not surprising me… see my message (4) – I’ve seen more aggressive driving this year from the McLaren boys, but that’s ok of course… double standards…

  12. Gee Halpo… your one to critisize “alphonso”

    I am getting really tired of this “Alonso is a whinner” BS. He is the greatest driver of his era and is on a run to be take three consecutive WDC’s and that makes him one of the top drivers ever in the sport.

    Someone whacked you in the side as you were passing them for the win after one of the craziest and most stressful races in history and you then parked the car 5 minutes later and see the damage. Now you’ve got cameras in your face, you are on world wide TV… How could you keep from pointing at the damage!

    You have just won a hugely important race… You have driven brilliantly under exstream conditions, you have just narrowly avoided a DNF because of another drivers swerve and you point at the mark he made on your car…

    There are no mikes, you’ve got your helmet on, so you wag your finger….

    Then you would have to be some kind of stoic to not mention the damage when you see the guy that did it about 2 minutes later.

    The insuing spat was really minor… both guys saying that the other needs to “learn”.. Its massa that drops the f word… and Fernando handles that well by ignoring it.

    Then 5 minutes later, on world wide tv, after a drink of limonade and a deep breath, Alonso apologizes for his comments to Fellipe.

    I think he did the right thing, handled himself well and has nothing to be ashamed of. He deserves praise for how well he handled it…..

    Massa is the one who should be critisized for being hot headed driver who gets bent out fo shape when he has his ass handed to him by a better driver. If his dangerous swerve into Alonsos side pod was intentional like Massa says, then he really is the one that should be ashamed of his actions.

  13. Diana, you must be Alonso’s mother.

  14. Sorry, Carldec, but I disagree. Fernando is a great driver, brilliant even. He earned that for beating Kimi in 05, and MS in 06.

    But there is more to an F1 driver than just his driving. His attitude also counts. He didn’t need to wag the finger at parc ferme, he didn’t need to blame Massa for what happened, he should’ve just been happy he won and congratulated Felipe on a good fight. Alonso shouldn’t have taken issue with the damage, it happens a lot in F1! Sheesh. Anyway, the apology was good, but not good enough in my opinion. Alonso didn’t ignore the f word, he continued to argue with Massa anyway, but did well to avoid saying the f word.

    I’m with Felipe on this one, but he should be avoiding that f word.

    Anyway, here’s a revised version of the dialogue I found from planet-f1.com

    Alonso: You did it intentionally, as in Barcelona.
    Massa: No, I did not.
    Alonso: You broke my sidepod there – go and have a look at it!
    Massa: Go f**k yourself!. You won and you say something like this.
    Alonso: Mate, it can’t break itself.
    Alonso: I have fought with Heidfeld, with everybody, what you did with three laps to go can’t be done.
    Massa: He wins and says that. You must learn.
    Alonso: It is you who has to learn. I have fought with everybody and with three laps to go, we touch!
    Massa: (Sarcastic) Bravo.
    Alonso: Bravo you!
    Massa: You say that I did it on purpose, like I did that on purpose in Barcelona?. You were remained behind.
    (As this point Ron Dennis steps in)
    Dennis: Boys calm down.
    Massa: Tell him to!

  15. You will not see Raikkonen behaving like Alonso when he wins. I get SO annoyed with Alonso bouncing around like a monkey on acid whenever he wins. It’s embarrassing.

  16. Definitely all in the way you see it. ;)

  17. Yeah, Alastair, it’s a shame Alonso isn’t as dull and listless as Raikkonen. Perhaps one day Fernando will learn that he has to act as he is at a funeral when he wins a race. Shame on him for showing emotion.

    I’m shocked at how everyone is so surprised over Alonso. It’s like none of you have ever been in a high pressure situation before!! He has a right to be a little annoyed or upset over the matter. Good for him for saying something to Massa. Let him know he won’t ignore his inane tactics anymore.

  18. Yeah, Alastair, it’s a shame Alonso isn’t as dull and listless as Raikkonen. Perhaps one day Fernando will learn that he has to act as he is at a funeral when he wins a race. Shame on him for showing emotion.

    lol, true.

    I enjoyed the little spat and finger wagging at the end. F1 really needs some of these characters.

  19. All is good with celebrating a victory. You can jump like a soccer fan all you want. Fine.

    What is NOT good is rubbing your victory on the rest of the field, you know, comments like “My only regret is that we didn’t beat Ferrari by more time” and “I’m very happy this things happen to my teammate and specially in england”… Alonso has said a lot of this kind of stuff, particularly on spanish tv and radio.

    You can win, you can celebrate, you can be one of the best drivers (btw, most pundits rate Kimi higher than Alonso, Alonso is not the greatest driver of this era, that would be Schumi) but there is really no need to be an utter sucker, arrogant little boy is it?

    Now, considering all that, and the things we don’t see, is understandable that Massa send him to take a **** (literally, he didn’t use the F word, and Alonso also send him to do the same).

    That is the real shame, the attitude Alphonso takes when he wins. And let’s not forget than when he’s not wining then “Lewis is getting a better car, the team is leaning towards him…” BOLLOCKS.

    He’s a terrific driver, very agressive, I like the way he drives. But he has the brain of a 5 year old, a very spoiled one. I really like Lewis beatting the crap out of him. Oh yes, check the standings.

    Kimi on the other hand, would have said something like “yes this things happen, he touched me, there’s no big deal, fortunately we both finished the race”.

    An educated attitude.

  20. Ali AydoÄŸan
    24th July 2007, 19:15

    We all know that Massa and Alonso already have a tension since the very first days of Massa in Ferrari. Remember Massa spinned and went very close to hit Alonso after late braking but they could avoid collision then in Bahrain. Everybody remembers what happened in last year’s Monza GP I guess. Also in MagnyCours 2006, Massa spoke about the incident of two in the 2nd corner “He had more to lose” which could have driven Alonso somehow crazy I guess, after having his front right tyre on the grass. Alonso was probably frustrated in some races by being held by Massa (which is legal and normal in F1) more than Fisico held (or could hold?) Schumacher in 2006. 2007 Spanish GP is also another case btw these two. So having these incidents, they obviously hate each other on track, maybe outside too :)

    For the Nürburgring touch, helicopter camera video gives the best angle. You can see there two cars are side by side, Alonso a small distance forward than Massa. But a few meters before the touch, one of them approaches the otherside. Guess who?

    On the tension before podium, I prefer Alonso telling Massa that it was intentional, than pretending to be the best friends out there which is not he case. These drivers-excluding a few of them-have huge egos, these kind of things are normal after stressful 2 hours, and I hope we see some more tension if it is to bring more fights on track :)

    Kimi is absolutely calmer and reacts less than Alonso but I am not sure he would say “these things happen” if he thought he was hit intentionally?
    Would he?

  21. If you remember 2005 and 2006, Kimi had the worst of lucks, and ALWAYS said “these things happen, this is racing” and never “the car just don’t work” Wich, for instance, Alonso has said.

    So, I think yes, Kimi would said that too after an intentional indicent.

    Besides, this is F1, you really can’t tell if it was intentional, not until you check the videos and read the telemetry. It might be unintentional, Massa could have just lost the car, I don’t know, I don’t have access to the telemetry. So Alonso is even wronger, he can’t tell if it was on purpose (at least in that moment).

    We’re watching the very best drivers in the world, one would expect them to react like civilized people, not like monkeys. Rofl pushing the marshall? The thing with Speed and his pit crew? If you want to see fingers and punches, then switch to nascrap and champ car, there’s plenty of that there. I really think there’s no room for that behaviour off track in F1.

  22. Why is everyone complaining about Alonso whining? If it got under Massa’s skin then all the power to him….. There not teammates he should be irritating him.

    I think Massa was unhappy because he thought he deserved that race, and the tires did him in. That and the fact that he didn’t think Alonso was going to try to pass on the outside in the rain, especially on such crap wet tires.

    This incident made me like both drivers more. I like the fire that Massa shows, maybe its a bit immature but at least we don’t question his drive to succeed. Alonso was amazing, he showed his poise all race and then made the pass when the door opened.

    Personally I don’t see what the big deal is, they both finished didnt they? Rubbing is Racing.

  23. Ali AydoÄŸan
    24th July 2007, 21:13

    I like Kimi as a driver and as a human, he is a nice guy. He could stay calm (maybe did nont show his anger) in DNFs due to mechanical problems he had in McLaren especially in 2005 and it is true he did not speak much about them. But I think he may (and he should) behave in a different way if he loses the title after he thinks somebody hits him. If he feels there is something unfair against him, he should speak about it and people should talk about it.

    About telemetry thing, I dont think they need it, they both know what happened there and both have no doubts about it, which I think is the case in most incidents.

    Nobody want monkeys there, nobody wants boxers there, but I also do not want to see racers congratulating each other just to show that they are gentlemen, even if they feel different out there. It is F1, it is tension itself….

  24. Really? Well, I see BMW saying they will look at the telemetry and THEN sit the drivers down and talk things over, so they running into each other doesn’t happen again. Why? They say because each driver has a completely different and formed point of view.
    And THEY are teammates.

    So, you see, in F1 is not as easy as “they both know what happened there”. Massa surely does. Fernando doesn’t. He only asumes Massa hit him intentionally.

    Everyone is complaining about Alphonso’s attitude because we want quality champions, in every sense of the word. We don’t want crybabies who rub their victories over the face of their competitors.

    Do you see Lewis complaining that Alonso is getting the better car everytime he loses? No.
    Do you see Alonso complaining that Lewis is getting the better car everytime he loese? Yes.

  25. Nikos Darzentas
    24th July 2007, 22:37

    I blame Keith for providing the spark for such discussions… cunning :-)

    some very good points above, and some not so, but I won’t elaborate, there’s no point, because we’re all F1 fanatics (.co.uk) and we need to agree to disagree

    I miss Schumi, I like Massa as a package, probably Kimi even more, and I think Ron’s children are supreme drivers but have annoying personalities outside the car with arrogance (disguised in Lewis, hanging out there in Alonso) a common theme – and I’m a Ferrari fan, but honestly this has nothing to do with it

    anyway, I don’t REALLY mind any of that since they can look as stupid as they want outside the cockpit, I just enjoy watching 4 drivers with 4 brilliantly different styles banging wheels out on track (and then fighting about it :D)

  26. Man! Am I a fool? I read all 26 postings……all over NOTHING!!!!

  27. Alonso was never reported as claiming Hamilton was receiving a better car. He was reprted for syaing he was getting better support from the team, obvious enough.

    I’m sick of this Alonso is a whinger stuff. ANyone who’s been watching F1 for the last 15 years at least can tell you, Schumacher was a (probably the biggest) whinger… go back earlier, Prost was a Whinger, Senna was a Whinger, Mansell was a Whinger,Hakkinen was a Whinger, Villeneuve was a Whinger, only champion in recent times that was the least whinging was HILL!!!,,

    In F1 these days, the award for biggest Whinger is Scott Speed, remember the Radio Transmission aired (Speed and his engineer) just before the formation lap at the Montreal Grand Prix!!!!

  28. Hmmm, Scott’s in good company, it seems – should be a world champion any day now!

  29. HAPLO,

    Stop throwing all that garbage at us. I hope someone paid to to so, the alternative doesn’t leave you a decent position. I cannot even start figuring out what drives you to say things like:

    False and racist statement:
    He is not very fluent in english, but that is a cultural thing, spanish people don’t like english/america very much, they are very conservative about stuff like that, and their accent is more like reading english in spanish, not giving it the proper accent. For example, he calls Lewis “Luis”, the spanish more similar sound. I really hate that, bollocks if you ask me.

    You’re lying again, can you point JUST A SINGLE link to any of the Spanish media?
    What is NOT good is rubbing your victory on the rest of the field, you know, comments like “My only regret is that we didn’t beat Ferrari by more time” and “I’m very happy this things happen to my teammate and specially in england”… Alonso has said a lot of this kind of stuff, particularly on spanish tv and radio.

    Again, I dont know what you get from your intoxication, but I cannot understand those biased comments.

    Cheers

  30. alonso is an idiot… he has to make a big show out out everything and why would massa let him pass with 3 laps 2 go..? good question. and mclearin would be nothing this season but since they like to steal ferrari’s papers they just happen to be so good? hamilton is over-rated! honestly i hope ferrari prove that mclearin were cheating and hamilton doesnt win and neither does alonso. FORZA FERRARI

  31. Haplo, did you read the the F1Fanatic comment policy before writing your racist remaks about alonso’s accent and level of english?  Alonso speaks several languages fluently, he expresses himself better thank most native english speakers! The man has an accent, BIG DEAL.  I’d like to hear you speak spanish…hmmm I wonder how many other languages superstar lewis speaks.  You can pick on the guy’s  experience, his driving technique and his attitude, but his pronounciation of the english languge is a little lame.  

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