He never impresses unless he is on pole on a nice, flat, Tilke track on a sunny day. I think the lack of TC will only heighten the disparity between Massa and Raikkonen in 08.

Massa,to me,seems to have this bitter personality that puts the blame on everyone else instead of taking his game up a notch.(not unlike Alonso)

If the reliability is there,I think most of this season we will be watching everyone trying to catch Kimi.

If Hamilton hadn’t gone for the gravel at China, he would’ve won.

If Alonso hadn’t crashed at Fuji, he would’ve won.

If his car wasn’t broken (by Michael Schumacher) at Adelaide, Damon Hill would’ve won in 1994.

If Bill Buckner hadn’t let the ball through his legs, the Red Sox would’ve won the 1986 World Series.

It’s sports, there are going to be “what if?” moments – Felipe needs to learn (like Kimi did after 2005) that there’s no use crying over bad luck in sports.

1)Mechanical problems are part of F1. So, sorry Massa, every year wins the best driver, or the best car, or the most reliable car, or maybe the one with all that things. Nodody said that reliabality is out of this competion.

2)About Mclaren-Alonso affair. First of all, i’m not defending any of them. The point of Alonso’s complaining wasn’t sabotage of his car. I’ve never heard that mclaren gave a car worse than Hamilton’s. Alonso first complain was, that Mclaren benefited Lewis in strategies (extra lap in Q3, or quantity of fuel in Q3 gave Alonso the bad first pit stop). In the very last races he insinuated (and spanish media said)that tyres pressures in Q3 were too high, in order to damage Alonso’s qualifing. The pressures issue was first said in Hungary Q3. Mclaren’s engineers said to Alonso that he would use soft tyres in the last lap, but finally they chose hard ones. (some people said that the seconds Alonso stopped Lewis was because he was asking his engineers why as well as not having the promised extra lap, he also had the bad option tyres). Anyway, later Mclaren admited that for unknown reasons Alonso’s soft tyres were overpumped, and they changed to hard tyres. Ironically Alonso got the pole with the “bad” option.

3) I’m a little bit tired to defend Lewis in spanish forums, and Alonso in british forums. Could we forget last season and try to focus in 2008?

He is playing the old trick of buffering himself from possible ego damaging facts. He didn’t lose because the other guy was faster, rather it was because of reliability, totally out of control. Imagine is he was asked why he couldn’t beat Kimi and he answered “I am just not as fast” it may have sounded honest but what would that reflect about his state of mind, that the only way he thinks he is going to win is by Kimi falling over, and no matter how well he (Felipe) drives he is not as fast as him. Psychologically, he would be shot! It is the same with Lewis, talking about car failures rather then a couple of poor drives as being reasons for him to not take the title. Most of the drivers look back in hinsight at the season that was and claim that without the weather/ car/ reliability/ reckless other driver/ runestones etc they would have won the title. All aspects out of their control.

Now, look at how they are talking before the season begins, it is all about them! Heikki claims that if he drives to his best he can take the fight to Lewis, Lewis reckons that he will take the fight to the Ferrari. None of the drivers are talking about reliability etc., they are all talking about themselves.

Back to Massa, when he first drove the new car withouth any gizmos, he said that he was rubbish and that it would take him a while to get used to it. He is still talking about himself in the sense that HE has the power to get used to the car, And as soon as HE does he will be very very quick. Imagine if he came out and said that the reason he was too slow at the first test was that the car was rubbish withouth the gizmos and too slow. Oh no, it is all about him!

I reckon that it is the mindset of a champion. If I do my best I can win, and looking back it is only outside forces that held me back. Most of the top end of the grid has it and Massa does too.

Disclaimer! I reckon Massa is pretty good and wouldn’t be at all suprised if he is Brazil’s 4th world champion (There have only been 3 right?)

Felipe almost certainly wouldn’t do what Lewis did against Kimi in Monza, but he still has a couple of years to improve on that specific area…

Fast, perhaps the faster when running alone, we all know he is…

I wouldn’t put money on Massa for this year, that’s for sure, I’m sure Kimi means it when he has said now that he’s won it he wants more. I was never sure of Kimi’s determination, but I am beginning to see a bit more of it – he has the natural gift, now if he only pushed it that little further he’ll be the first past the chequered flag by at least the length of a straight.

Having said all that, I don’t think I would’ve bet on Massa even being a contender in F1 ever, or even still being in F1 now since the Sauber years. Ferrari were probably looking at another Rubens, but I have to say it’s an interesting story from the next Brazilian champion point of view.

“Massa seems out of his element whenever he has to come from behind. Good driver when out front, but seems at a loss as to how or where to overtake. Alonso, Kimi, and Hamilton seem to have a natural sense of when to pull off the pass.”

Nailed it – Massa’s good at leading and running away with it. When it comes to getting past someone I do get a bit nervous – from quick memory, I don’t think I could come up with a decent pass on merit from Massa.

But I’ll wait until Melbourne to see what happens, as the pre-season testing is important, but not decisive at all… Otherwise, you would be worried about Lewis’ performance, compared to Heikki’s last week…

Kimi will outshine Massa this year, or any other year. And based on how much Ferrari pay him (same as Lewis at McLaren) Kimi will be given every opportunity to be the team leader and No. 1 driver.