Massa feared for Ferrari future at mid-season

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In the round-up: Felipe Massa was concerned he would lose his seat at Ferrari during 2012.

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

Massa: “Since August I was having fun again” (Ferrari)

“In the first half of the year, I was worried about renewing my contract. I did not think that Ferrari would really wait right to the end of the summer before deciding on the driver line-up for next year.”

Pirelli hopes for five more years beyond 2013 (ESPN)

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery: “I think most people would think you need to do 8-10 years really in a sport to be able to activate your involvement in an activity right down to the point of sale, which is what everybody wants to do of course if they’re involved in any form – we’re a technical sponsor it’s not just sponsoring for us – but it would probably take a medium term agreement to allow you to really maximise the return on your investment.”

The Longest Season Really Is Over (International Herald Tribune)

“After I read the FIA explanation of what had happened on the track, it was clear that no rule had been broken. And when I saw that the FIA had said all the teams and drivers had been educated in the correct way to deal with the electronic warning lights, it made me suddenly think that perhaps whoever asked for clarification at Ferrari was also just too exhausted from all that travel to have remembered the details.”

A deconstruction of the Brazilian GP from Sebastian Vettel’s perspective (Somers F1)

“The damage to the floor was not the only impact on [Vettel’s] RB8 with a large hole featuring in the rear of the Sidepod exposing the exhaust. The hole expanded the point around the RB8’s star feature this season the ‘Cross-under Tunnel’ allowing more airflow into the region. Due to the way that region is constructed the panel in front of the Tunnel was destroyed.”

Narain Karthikeyan’s F1 future under a cloud (The Times of India)

“Moving to a different team also looks unlikely with regard to sponsorships and even Force India seems like an unlikely destination.”

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Comment of the day

@Mags is powerless to resist F1 Fanatic’s gift suggestions:

I told my partner “no Christmas presents this year” but this is about the fifth thing from F1 Fanatic that I’ve emailed him a link to this weekend…
@Mags

From the forum

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On this day in F1

Antonio Pizzonia had a second huge crash in a five-day period today in 2002. The Jaguar driver, who was preparing for his race debut in 2003, crash his F1 car at the Circuit de Catalunya.

it came shortly after he wrote off one of the company’s road cars while driving journalists around the circuit.

Image © Ferrari spa/Ercole Colombo

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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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44 comments on “Massa feared for Ferrari future at mid-season”

  1. Narain Karthikeyan’s F1 future under a cloud

    was it ever in a bright blue sky?

    1. According to The Times of India, yes. And that sky was a brighter blue than anyone else. After all, they were the ones who started up the rumour of Karthikeyan going to Force India next year during the Indian Grand Prix weekend …

      1. @prisoner-monkeys I am a daily subscriber to the newspaper, and nothing like that was ever said by them. They always insisted that one of Bianchi, Alguersuari or Sutil would be in the Silverstone-based team next year.

      2. When there are drivers of higher calibre like Kobayashi to choose from, i dont think Force India will go for Narain. He might get a shot at a test driver role somewhere though which i think is the best he can hope for. He hasn’t disgraced himself in F1 but neither has he made heads turn.

    2. Narain’s F1 career is well and truly over now. I’m no fanboy, but it’s a pity he never got a chance with a proper car, although he did reasonably well during his stint with Jordan.

      I think he will head back to the US, he won many fans during his stints there…so hopefully gets a decent drive.

      1. I’m no fanboy, but it’s a pity he never got a chance with a proper car, although he did reasonably well during his stint with Jordan.

        I agree, Narain was/is a much better driver than he’s looked the last 2 years at HRT.

        If you look back at 2005 he had some real good performances in an uncompetitive Jordan, He was a lot faster than his team mate (Tiago Monteiro) over the 1st half of that year but had a difficult 2nd half after Trever Carlin was fired (Trevor was acting as a kind of mentor for Narain) & some of the new guys brought in as part of Midland made it clear they wanted Narain out in favor of someone bringing more cash.

        There were a lot of guys at Jordan who were genuinely impressed with Narain’s abilities & felt he’d have really shone given a 2nd season in 2006 & given more support from the new MF1 team bosses. They certainly rated him a lot more than the guy that replaced him.

  2. Road Safety will be all over that picture!!!! :)))) (no hands)

    Good luck to Massa, hope for a better season start this time around! You show them boy!

    Now the waiting…. :(

    1. To make it easier on myself, and don’t count till the Melbourne but the first unveilings. Seems like there’s less time to wait for that way. :)
      And you gotta admit that’s one of the most exciting times during the year. Everyone is full of hope and enthusiasm and we finally get to see the new cars.
      Argh, I can’t wait, damn it! :)
      Just 1.5 months perhaps?

      1. Now that the subject is open, do we already know when will the first tests take place ? Early february as usual ? Damn, seems so far right now

    1. When I first read this comment I thought Formula Ecclestone? Doesn’t he have one of those already…. But FE definitely an interesting idea.

  3. That article on Vettel’s damaged car is a bit confusing. I’m not sure how to interpret this bit:

    In fact my immediate reaction was I’m sure Adrian will be glad that damage is on the right side of the car with it being a clockwise circuit and most of the high speed corners turning left.

    Wasn’t the damage on the left side where Bruno hit him and isn’t Interlagos an anticlockwise circuit? How does turning left aid a car damaged on the left side?

    1. JimmyTheIllustratedBlindSolidSilverBeachStackapopolis III
      3rd December 2012, 4:48

      Tbh i think the term armchair expert fits the author he seemingly judges sebs car to be fine because several parts of the damage looked to him like parts of some other cars. Rather than any aerodynamic or engineering reason he goes by the science of spot the difference. Fine enough opinion piece but adrian neweys secret blog it aint.

    2. @codesurge Maybe that’s a way to say that the damages affect aero, thus the damage side would be slower … And having damages on the left would mean a natural tendancy of the car to turn left. That’s the only thing I could think off from what we have.

  4. @fer-no65 @prisoner-monkeys Times of India hardly ever prints F1 news. Race results(printed in just 4 lines) are relegated to sme corner of the sports page of Monday’s newspaper. The best paper for F1 news is Deccan Herald.

    1. or some websites like these :P

  5. I would love to know how Jenson won British racing driver over Lewis at the Autosport awards?

    1. Indeed! It makes no sense..

    2. Because a panel of judges decided based on a number of criteria?

      1. Were those criteria being trounced by your team mate of the same nationality?

          1. 2 points, what a trouncing

          2. Did you follow this season at all?

        1. JimmyTheIllustratedBlindSolidSilverBeachStackapopolis III
          3rd December 2012, 14:26

          Yeah your right matt, lewis beat jenson 1-0 in tweeting his teams technical data these awards are clearly a fix.

        2. @matt90 Considering that he’s beaten Lewis over the course of 3 years I think that might have something to do with it!

          1. He didn’t though. He beat Hamilton 1 year, which wasn’t this year, which is the year the award has apparently been awarded for. Despite the close points score, Button was very thoroughly beaten this year. It doesn’t make sense in the same way that it wouldn’t if Raikkonen won ‘best Ferrari driver of 2008’.

    3. Gutted for what I thought was, driving-wise, Lewis’ best season in F1.

  6. AUTOSPORT Awards: Jenson Button wins British Competition Driver (http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/104699)

    ‘He beat 2008 Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton, four-time IndyCar champion and triple Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti, 2012 World Touring Car champion Rob Huff, Force India F1 driver Paul di Resta and 2012 DTM runner-up Gary Paffett to win the award.’

    Slightly off topic but can someone explain to me what are the criteria for this award. I mean we have Button – who in 2012 was generally outshone by Hamilton, 3-17 quali, 1-7 poles, less wins, less points, et cetera – would win over Lewis as well as a world champion in Rob Huff and Gary Paffett who was one overtake away from being world champion.

    1. @harvs @kodongo – The public has the ability to vote on who receives which award. I suspect that Hamilton’s decision to move to Mercedes, away from a British team, may have triggered a public backlash that showed itself in the voting trends.

      As for how Button beat Paffet and Huff, it’s simple: statistically, Formula 1 drivers win the British Competition Driver of the Year award significantly more than drivers from any other category; in the thirty years since the award was introduced, Formula One drivers have won it nineteen times. The only touring car driver to have won the award was Andy Priaulx, back in 2004, and that was for his performance in the European Touring Car Championship (which became the World Touring Car Championship the next year). No driver from DTM has ever won the award.

      1. @prisoner-monkeys

        Forgive my ignorance but what is the criteria for this award? Is it purely based on votes? Or some expert panel? Or a mix of the two?

        If it is purely based on votes, then I can understand why Button own it.

        1. I have absolutely no idea if there are additional criteria. I just know that the public can vote for the candidates.

          1. Even when Hamilton is doing good he is in some way in the middle of a scandal, let see some of the ones on the top of my head:
            -Drinking until 5am before running with torch at the Olympics
            -Piking up girls (dressed like “working womans”) on a disco and then take them to an hotel, where he drank until the morning
            -Twitter gate 1: telemetry
            -Twitter gate 2: Jenson is a bad teammate

            If this is a popularity contest I wouldn´t be too surprised if Hamilton lost some votes over this time of things…

          2. JimmyTheIllustratedBlindSolidSilverBeachStackapopolis III
            3rd December 2012, 14:29

            He drank till 5 am before running with the torch? well that puts him up in my books. Sadly the other stuff knocks him right back down.

    2. Why didn’t you put the figures down for wins and points?

    3. I do think it would be nice to hear from them exactly why they chose Button, who did not achieve anything extraordinary this year (pushing Hamilton from the team? Winning by some points over their 3 years together, doing Triathlons and qualifying for the Ironman?) over Dario or Huff, for example.

      Hamilton IMO did race really well this year, but I don’t think this season should earn him a palm like that either.

  7. maybe cause hes black :P

  8. Looking at that Ferrari pic… I do miss the “non-ugly” noses of the 2011 cars. Will there be any platypus noses in 2013?

    1. I believe they will be gone for 2013 or they’re able to put a cover over the step noses as long as it adds no aerodynamic advantage. Can someone confirm?

  9. Good to see Alonso is fine(in mentality I mean!). Surely he will come back stronger next year!

  10. An interesting article on F1.com with Alonso where he said he “hope’s to have a bit more luck”. Excuse me for saying this but unless he is talking about the car surely he can’t consider himself unlucky. I think only Hamilton has the right to feel genuinely short on luck this season…

    1. Actually to be more accurate, he says “Let’s hope we also have a bit more luck…” after spelling out his opinion that they lost the WDC at Spa and Suzuka. I think you have omitted the key word ‘also’ from your take on his direct quote. I think you are misinterpreting his quotes or overemphasizing the word luck.

      I think he states clearly the realities of his season. He ends by implying that when all is said and done he just needed 3 or 4 more points. ie. if next year is just as competitive, with nobody really running away with it, then aside from them tackling the issues they have had, had they not been taken out a couple of times, robbing them of valuable points, the WDC would have been theirs. He’s just putting a positive spin on his season. Surely you don’t think he actually thinks his losing the WDC comes down strictly to a bit of luck. Surely he is well aware it is a mixed bag of circumstances that lead to his standing in the end, and he is also well aware the other drivers could say the same thing. If SV hadn’t had some of the unreliability he had, he would have lead by more going into the final race. If LH hadn’t had his issues he would have been a contender etc etc. FA knows he was lucky with reliability. He also acknowledges they only needed a handful more points for the WDC. And that could have come from anywhere. Lucky with one more car going off in front of him that might have elevated him from 3rd to 2nd in any given race. Luck if SV hadn’t been able to finish in Brazil after being spun. Not saying FA would want to win that way, but it was that close, coming down to the final race, and any circumstance going a bit more FA’s way would have been all it would have taken. He would not have handed back the trophy, nor been asked to, if SV had been taken out in Brazil, as anticlimactic as that would have been.

      And really, FA could even be thinking that with any luck they will come out of the box in a better state to start off the 2013 season than 2012 afforded them with a radically changed car that gave more questions than answers initially. Nothing wrong with hoping for a bit more luck that way too.

  11. Felipe Massa has had better results in the Brazilan Grand Prix than Ayrton Senna.

  12. I do hope Pirelli stay around that long as long as their principals remain the same; the element of surprise. We don’t want Pirelli to do what Bridgestone did and completely alter the compound purely for commercial benefit.

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