Massa hopes F1 can return to Bahrain in 2011

2011 F1 testing

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Felipe Massa, Ferrari, Barcelona, 2011

Felipe Massa says he hopes F1 will be able to return to Bahrain following the cancellation of next month’s race.

Speaking to reporters in Barcelona he said: “What has happened there is very serious. I hope everything will be normal.

“The human side and the safety side are so much more important. I like Bahrain and I hope we get to go back there.”

He added: “I would like to race in Bahrain for the first race as I like the track there. Maybe we will race there again later in the year.”

He played down suggestions that his team, along with Red Bull, are favourites, saying: “”Nothing is clear at the moment.

“We wait and see at the next test and at the first race. We expect Red Bulll to be strong as they are the team that won the championships.

“Maybe McLaren and Mercedes also. You can’t rule them out of the fight. They are big teams and know how to win.”

Massa was positive after his two days in the car, saying: “I think it was a good feeling with the car. We tried everything we were meant to run.

“On the reliability side we didn’t really have any problems of the day. The car behaved in a good direction. It was a good four days for us.”

He also described the difficulty of managing tyre wear with the new Pirelli rubber:

“To save the tyre isn’t very easy. The prediction is the pit stops will be more.

“The medium and hard tyre didn’t have good grip when they are new. The degradation is very high for sure on the medium and high, so the strategies will be very different compared to last year.”

Quotes and additional reporting by Leandra Graves

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    25 comments on “Massa hopes F1 can return to Bahrain in 2011”

    1. I hope they can all get to Bahrain at some point…for sure.

      1. Put me in that group.

        1. I´m sorry to disagree both of you. Seriously i hope to have less races on those tilke´s tracks, and back to old-school tracks like jerez, imola, maybe brands hatch. i know that this is very unlikely and you take a lot of effort from track´s owners, but i miss thos 80-90´s races

          1. Like you I also think that some classic track should comeback in F1 but I don’t want a GP to fall off the calender because of some issue not involve F1.

    2. If the race is to be re-scheduled, I’m tipping November 6th as the new date, which would make it Round 18. It’s the only slot on the calendar that actually works. It would mean having three races in three weeks, which is a big ask even if they are not fly-away events, but Bahrain is in close proximity to Abu Dhabi, so it would be a lot like the Barcelona-Monte Carlo double-header with the teams able to get from Bahrain to Abu Dhabi with relative ease. The catch is that there is just a week between India on October 30th and November 6th, so the teams would have to put in a gargantuan effort to make it from India to the Middle East. Unfortunately, India cannot be moved up a week to October 23rd, beause that would mean it is just one week after the Korean Grand Prix. But I think it is manageable. November 6th give the teams plenty of time to prepare, and it would give them a chance to intercept their own freight. They’d be able to send two lots of equipment out, one to Singapore to last them through to India, and then another one to be collected in Bahrain. It also gives the government in Manama months to not only restore order and properly neogtiate with the protestors, but to implement the changes they are psurusing and making sure those changes stick. November 6th is the only date that works, unless the teams want to do a special flyaway event in the month-long gap between Hungary and Belgium some time in August.

      1. I understood, that they cannot do Bahrain only a week after India this year as India is a new venue.

        That means no one really knows how much time it takes for the freight to get from India to the Middle East.

        Pairing Bahrain with Abu Dhabi would then have to be after the latter, with Brazil moving into a December 4th slot.

        Who knows, what Brazil would make of that (final round of their Football competition as well) and Abu Dhabi will not be too happy with their gulf rival taking away some of the already meagre interest in the event.

        1. That means no one really knows how much time it takes for the freight to get from India to the Middle East.

          Putting Bahrain between India and Abu Dhabi would make the final away leg seven races long. The logical solution is to have freight waiting to be collected in Bahrain, and send the frieght used from Singapore to India back home. After all, because of the distance travelled, teams often send frieght to Bahrain for the first race of the season, and then arrange to have more freight waiting for them in Malyasia.

    3. Indeed this is one of the few tracks where Massa generally puts in decent performances. He must be really sad to see it go.

      1. one of the many, for sure.

        1. Well I’d say Bahrain, Turkey, Valencia and Brazil. You could call that “many” I guess. I don’t though.

          1. you should watch more than 4 races per season.

    4. of course, one of the only 3 tracks Massa can win at lol.

      1. Catalunya, Spa?

        1. bahrain, turkey, brazil.

          Spa? you seriously said Spa? WOW. He was awarded the win. A LOT OF MASSA FANBOYS HERE.

          1. He may well have been awarded the win, that’s why he won, but that’s still a win in the history books, so don’t say he can’t win there. Had Räikkönen decided to crash into Hamilton instead of in the wall, Felipe would’ve won (but i know it’s not his strongest circuit). Also he should’ve won in Hungary and Singapore in 2008 had not Ferrari messed it up. He also won in Valencia and France (inhireted, I know, but a win is a win) the same year.

        2. Bahrain: 2007 & 2008
          Turkey: 2006 & 2007 & 2008
          Brazil: 2006 & 2008
          These are the circuits he won more at.

          1. Yes indeed, but he can win at other circuits.

            1. “can” as in “if enough people ahead of him retire”.

              The rest of us say “can” to mean “can win on his own strengths”

            2. @ Patrickl: So you think it’s correct to say he can’t win at other tracks than Brazil, Bahrain and Turkey, when he did win by his own strength in Barcelona and Valencia, and would’ve won in Hungary and Singapore too had he not been let down by his team?

    5. This is one of the few tracks that performs well, but then sometimes there are more important things in life than car racing – at least for people in Bahrain.

    6. For a minute I was worried Massa was going to be as vague as the others drivers (bar Webber) but he pleasantly surprised me and like Mark understands that racing will not be the priority for Bahrain right now.

    7. Why do we care if Bahrain comes back on the calendar? Watching pro-democracy movement vs government is a lot more exciting that the borefest of a race that bahrain has been the last few years….

      1. I disagree, Bahrain isn’t my favourite on the calendar, but it certainly isn’t a ‘snorefest’ as I’ve seen various people saying, as the first race of the season, it’s difficult to judge how good the race should be, the only bad part of Bahrain was the added bit that they introduced last year.

        Having said that, I am glad that they decided not to race, it’s very difficult now that F1 has gained an incredible amount of fandom for it not to be a media attention grabber, and I would’ve feared for the safety of all those at the event should it have continued as planned

        1. I agree, the original track isn’t so bad.

          How come there was only one ‘for sure’ in that article, were they edited out?!

          1. Yeah, are we for sure they even talked to the real Massa? :D

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