Massa wants shorter F1 races
4th March 2009, 19:30 by Keith Collantine 57 Comments »
Felipe Massa wants F1 testing to count towards the championship
With the Formula 1 teams’ association set to announce its plans for the future of F1 (more on that later) Felipe Massa has served up a side show to the main event with some entertainingly barmy suggestions of his own.
He wants F1 races to be shorter: “because in the last 15 laps nobody cares about the race any more.” I remember the last few laps of the Belgian and Brazilan rounds last year being the best action we saw all year thanks to some late rain showers we would have missed if the races had been 15 laps shorter.
But that’s nothing compared to Massa’s next idea, which can only be parody:
Friday is not so important for the show, so you can use the Saturday morning, and take away the Friday, and do two, three or four (test) sessions during the season, not together, separated, making a testing championship.
Maybe the winner has a bonus for the championship, or whatever you want to give.
A testing championship? Surely he didn’t suggest that seriously?
Hopefully FOTA’s plans will be much better than this when they announce them.
Massa concluded by saying: “If everybody has an opinion and suggests ideas, all together we can make a good championship.” In which case my opinion is that we all ignore Massa’s suggestions, and instead file them under “things we’ll pretend he never said” along with ‘Silverstone isn’t flat enough’.
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jayb said on 4th March 2009, 19:45
stick to the driving felipe!!
leave the great ideas to men like max and bernie. oh hold that sounds just like one of there ideas!!!!
Damon said on 4th March 2009, 19:49
Hahaha, I never knew Felipe was a retard.
I wonder what the cars would look like if he also had ideas for the technical regulations.
“Maybe the winner has a bonus for the championship, or whatever you want to give.”
- A rubber ducky!
And what’s with the test thing? Is he a cricket fan?
Fer no.65 said on 4th March 2009, 20:28
jajajajajaja! Epic! A Ferrari V10 powered rubber ducky =)
mail123456 said on 4th March 2009, 19:53
@jayb: exactly …
these words come to my mind:
“If the Ferrari president is right about the Singapore Grand Prix being a circus then we have to be grateful to him for providing the clowns.”
so Felipe do your job and leave to us to decide how long show must go on …
pseudohendrix said on 4th March 2009, 19:54
Brilliant. Thank you Felipe.
I imagine he’s just putting in a word for his beloved team mate Kimi, who i’m sure would be in favour of shorter races. That way, he can get to the bar sooner…
Gman said on 4th March 2009, 22:28
Yeah, but don’t forget that Kimi would have less time for his late-race fast lap times, so perhaps this is Massa’s way of gaining an advantage, esp. if the FOTA recommends a point for fastest lap ….;)
Hounslow said on 4th March 2009, 20:03
Brilliant idea, Felipe!
And if we make the races only 15 laps, the cars won’t wear out their tyres and think how much money that would save!
Then we can have a ‘Who Can Get In The Car Without Falling Over’ championship, or maybe a ‘Getting Your Helmet On The Right Way Round’ championship.
nick clews said on 4th March 2009, 20:16
What a bummer, he only wants the races shorter because he either crashes after 10 laps or the car breaks down!
F1Yankee said on 4th March 2009, 20:20
if they reduce the race distances, i won’t be able to get my full sunday nap. seriously though, we only get 1 and a half hours of racing every 2 to 3 weeks as it is.
Tom said on 4th March 2009, 20:20
Shorter by two laps is what Massa has in mind, judging by what happened in Hungary and Brazil last year.
Spud said on 4th March 2009, 20:58
Thats exactly what I was thinkin!
We have a psychic in our midst!!
ajokay said on 4th March 2009, 20:24
All that not winning the championship has gone to his head.
Terry Fabulous said on 4th March 2009, 20:32
“If everybody has an opinion and suggests ideas, all together we can make a good championship.”
That is the truth.
The rest is certainly not what I agree with.
Terry Fabulous said on 4th March 2009, 20:33
Although if we make the races 15 laps longer then the last 15 laps won’t be the last 15 laps anymore and that will make them interesting again!
Or is that just dumb logic!!
Arthur954 said on 4th March 2009, 20:37
All that extra money that Bernie gives Ferrari has not made them any smarter
Rob R. said on 4th March 2009, 20:53
If anything the races need to be longer, so the stewards can wake up in time to give drive-thru penalties where they are deserved.
Seriously what’s the point of spending all that money just to go racing for 1 hour? Some of the races need to be longer. What needs to happen is for the regulations to be relaxed, and refuelling to be banned. Therefore they would become more eventful.
Robert said on 4th March 2009, 21:06
Yer i think brazil i cared about the last 15 laps and most likely so did he, nothing to do with the small case of losing the world championship?
dmw said on 4th March 2009, 21:14
Well, we could have two races on Sunday that were half as long or less, maybe with an inverted grid for the second go. That wacky idea has been tried somewhere or another I think. I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt—that he really wants more motivation to get to the front sooner.