Massa ‘never had three crashes so close together’

2013 Canadian Grand Prix

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Felipe Massa said he’s “physically fine” after his third major crash in two weeks.

The Ferrari driver crashed heavily during Q2 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. He had two shunts during the last race weekend in Monaco.

“I am very unhappy with the way qualifying went for me,” said Massa. “Track conditions were not easy, there was very little grip and I was struggling to put together a good lap.”

“I went out in Q2 because I braked on a white line at Turn 3 and when the rear end broke away, there was nothing I could do anymore. Physically, I’m fine, but within myself I’m very disappointed.”

“Never before have I had three accidents in such close succession, even if it’s always the case that when you try and give your all on tracks like this one and Monte Carlo, the risks are always higher.

“I still don’t know exactly how badly damaged the car is, but even if I’m very disappointed with what happened, we must stay focused, because tomorrow’s race will be long and on this track, anything can happen.”

Massa added he plans to drive an “attacking race” from his starting position of 16th.

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Image © Ferrari/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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45 comments on “Massa ‘never had three crashes so close together’”

  1. I laugh at all the people who were so sure Massa was “back” at the start of the year. This is just Massa being Massa.

    1. I agree: I thought he definitely was the best he had been post-crash but for consistent performance? No chance.

      1. Yeah. Massa is good (on par with Alonso) at a select few tracks. On those tracks he tends to get good results. It just happens at those tracks are at the very end and start of the calendar. I’m talking about maybe 5 or 6 tracks of the 19. People get winded up every time we get to those tracks, and so each year the same story is blurted out of the media. “Massa is back… beating Alonso… blah blah”.

        1. Yep, he just isn’t at all consistent, especially with more than 2 top teams in the mix.

    2. @joshua-mesh . You’ve noticed it this year. Since 2010, everytime Massa has had 2 decent races in a row, people claim “he’s back” and “Alonso better watch out!” and other rubbish like that.

      The fact is that he is no match for Alonso… and he isn’t worthy of driving a Ferrari.

      1. I completely agree–he isn’t worthy of driving a Ferrari.

      2. @todfod

        And every time he does badly two weeks in a row the opposite appears to happen.

        Isn’t worthy of driving a Ferrari? Then why did Ferrari keep him on? Ferrari seems to think he is.

        1. @mike

          Dont get me wrong .. he drives terribly throughout the year.. not just 2 races in a row.

          Why are Ferrari keeping him? I wish I knew the answer

    3. agree. It’s a conundrum how such an average driver can keep one of the best racing car for himself year after year. We know being liked by alonso helped him last year, plus webber not switching from red bull as well, but what would it be this year.
      in my opinion this is another thing that makes f1 look bad. it doesn’t look a professional sport, more like if you know the right people, have the right passport and you are lucky with the car, you have a chance to be world champion, even being second class.

  2. He’s pushing too hard. And he has a very fragile ego where most top athletes have that killer instinct and get cranked up if anyone doubts them. If the whole world is not patting him on the back, he gets worse and down on himself.
    I’m not saying he’s a bad person or anything, because I certainly couldn’t do it…but neither can he at that level. He just doesn’t have that confidence and self assured personality to compete with Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton, etc.

    1. I’m not really sure thats it. I get the feeling that his PR reps have pushed the story about his fragile ego as an excuse for just being slow.

      I get it 100% if he is pushing too hard (becoming inconsistent or crashing as a result) in order to try compensate for perhaps a lack of overall speed.

      1. @joshua-mesh

        If that’s the case then he should fire his PR reps…

    2. I agree completely, the most successful drivers all have a flair of confidence or even arrogance in a lot of cases. This doesn’t mean they’re bad, it just means that even with many people doubting them, as you said, it’d just spur them on.
      I mean, he even said to the press about hiring a sports psychologist to help him. Personally, I found it weird that he’d announce that publicly.

  3. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    8th June 2013, 22:29

    Ferrari should give hima 2 races break and give Koba a try

    1. God no. I live in Brazil and it’s bad enough every single race everyone talks about how “Massa could win!” despite struggling against the mid field.

      1. Chris (@tophercheese21)
        9th June 2013, 7:41

        @austus
        It’s the same here in Australia with Webber.

      2. it happens in all sports. i remember the hype from the media during the 80’s, that the spanish football team could win the world cup. It’s all a bunch of crap to keep people in front of their tv sets.
        webber and massa will never be world champions, so make room for two young guys who may or may not be able to. just give them a chance.

    2. Or Badoer. Or Fisichella. Yeah. These changes worked in 2009.

    3. I’m a Koba fan and I would love to see him giving an opportunity in a Ferrari, but mid-season replacements are a bad idea with how the tyres are right now. Imho if Massa continues being very average at most the races Koba should be given a season at Ferrari to prove himself, if it doesn’t pan out they can always get Hulkenberg in like many are expecting to happen anyway.

  4. i have heard that ferrari give him the new chassis after crash in monaco..guess they have to do that again

    1. No way. It wasnt a big crash.

  5. Time for Ferrari to consider giving Massa the sack. Sure he’s been extremely loyal to the team and he’s a nice guy but he’s costing them valuable points in the constructors and doesn’t really take advantage of situations when Alonso is out or having a bad race.

    There are many young drivers out there that could probably deliver good consistent performances (Kobayashi, Hulkenberg and maybe even Bianchi or Bottas) and who could learn from Alonso for the next few years and eventually lead the team when Fernando retires.

  6. Massa breaks under pressure too easily. Just the fact that he said this accident affected him psychologically is not a positive sign of his performance

  7. Unfortunately he has never the same after his accident. It’s like his driving lacks a sharpness. I don’t think Ferrari had the heart to fire him even last year given how close he came to death. I’d love to see him walk away and enjoy the rest of his life. He’s never going to be that guy in 2008 (and 2009 was leading comfortably leading Kimi in championship before the crash).

    1. Lewisham Milton
      8th June 2013, 23:54

      He’s had Alonso as his team mate since then. That’s gotta mess with your head a little bit.

      And he became a father that winter of 2009. Each child slows you down by half a second a lap, that’s what some old bike racer said (can’t remember who)…

      1. Each child slows you down by half a second a lap, that’s what some old bike racer said (can’t remember who)…

        I think those were Enzo Ferrari’s words

      2. That’s an interesting point about having kids and the impact it has on a driver’s psychology.
        But I agree, having Alonso as his team mate is a big difference to having Kimi as a team mate. Nothing against Alonso, it’s just that Kimi wasn’t fussed about having the number 1 status but Fernando coming in and stepping all over Felipe will have definitely affected his confidence a lot.

      3. emerson fittipaldi used to say by one second, but that’s when f1 was dangerous. Right now i think the only fair thing to say it’s that having a child doesn not make you any faster when on a f1.
        Bikes on the other hand, it’s still the real deal. And when a rider decides to retire, never cames back again. I wonder why…

    2. the thing with massa is that during the schumacher years, and a few after, he had a car that was perfectly set up by schumacher and the well oiled team, even barrichello was able to win with that perfect machine.
      when the car is easy to drive, second class drivers can get good results.
      when he beat the ice man, it was because the finn was melting by lack of motivartion, so it was not a good yardstick to be measured against.
      Somebody at ferrari, please do your job, and find a driver worth of the equipment. Stop making a mockery of a racing team with such an illustrious heritage.

  8. People are being a little bit harsh and presumptous here. Of his three crashes, one was due to a mechanical failure. One was at Ste. Devote at Monaco, which has an illustrious roster of victims. Schumacher, Senna, Alonso, all have stuffed it all on their own at Monaco. The other came in wet-dry in qualifying at Canada.

    1. Yup and the one today looked like he was just a bit to close to the painted line in the wet & when he taped the brakes it went around on him.

      1. Agreed. Using this kind of scrutiny, other drivers would be in line for replacement for their driving this season before Massa. It sure did look like the white line caught him out today.

    2. People are being a little bit harsh and presumptous [sic] here.

      @dmw – Seriously!

      It’s unbelievable the certainty and presumed insight people manifest when calling for Massa to be fired mid-Grand Prix. Clearly there are no talent or performance-management savvy folks reading Massa-articles. Sheesh.

      1. It isn’t just 3 crashes over 2 race weekends that has prompted fans to sack him. Its 3 years of consistent poor form that make us wonder why any top team would want a driver like that.

        F1 isn’t a forgiving sport, a few bad races or one poor season, and its adios to your career in F1. Heck, you dont even need to have a poor season to get sacked, just ask Kovalainen, Glock and Kobayashi for details.

        3 poor seasons while racing for f1’s most prestigous team is unheard of. I’m surprised that anyone could argue that Massa deserves his place in Ferrari

    3. I agree. Some people here seems completely delusional if they honestly believe that a team like Ferrari would keep a driver for so many years if they believe he is slow or broken or mediocre.

    4. Thank you, some reason at last!

  9. Massa seems like Maldonado in a Ferrari….he is quite arguably a danger to himself and to the other drivers.
    Maybe he needs a break.

    1. Sorry, Maldonado has a long way to go before any comparison to Massa could be realistic. Have you been watching F1 long? I ask that not to be mean, but Massa has accomplished much in his career that you simply may have missed. While not one of my favorite drivers and I could point out some shortcomings, posts like yours remind me of just how good of a driver Massa has been during most of his career. He has been as close as a driver can be to being world champion, one point away. He won titles in lower series. He has come back from a near career ending injury. At times he has beaten world champion teammates in qualifying and in races. Anyways, thanks for reminding me that even though Massa has had some incidents lately, he does deserve a measure of respect.

      1. He has been as close as a driver can be to being world champion, one point away.

        You mean one corner away. :)

      2. Great comment @bullmelo .

  10. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    9th June 2013, 7:46

    To me it seems like people have jumped on the “I-knew-Massa-was-terrible-all-along” bandwagon.

    As @dmw says, he crashed twice at Ste. Devote, which has claimed it’s fair share of world champions. And the other wasn’t his fault due to mechanical failure.

    And he crashed in an incredibly tricky wet qually in Montreal.
    Give the guy a break.

    If you’re going to lobby for a driver to be sacked, then surely it should be Grosjean.

    1. I think you guys are right there @tophercheese21 and @dmw, Massa had a couple of crashes in dificult places now, but that is no reason to right him off quite yet. Since the last couple of races last year he has more or less been delivering Ferrari what they need from him, maybe a tad more.

      Sure, he is more likely to make a mistake than we are used to from Alonso, or from Vettel or Kimi in the last couple of years, but how often does a Webber, Hamilton (although he has gotten better at not doing it too since last year), and others have a bit of a worse race or 2 in a row? Also, its pretty well known that neither Monaco, nor Montreal are tracks where Felipe excels on

  11. I honestly sometimes forget that massa is still in f1! He is so far past his best, and has such a low presence in most of the races. He’s the only driver in the ‘top teams’ that barely ever makes an impact on the race (apart from his recent spat of crashes). I’ve wondered for a long time why Ferrari keep him on – surely this year will be his last? (I feel like I say that every year). I see Hulkenburg alongside Alonso at Ferrari next year.

  12. he was complaining about the medical marshalls. After his accident, and having a kid, he passed his sell by date. But he still chases the dream, and he is not going to stop trying unless somebody at ferrari does his job, and replace him with a young driver, that consideres performance the most important thing.
    By nature, every driver at a certain point in his career stars thinking the walls are too close, and we know this time has come for the brazikian driver, but being f1 the mockery it is, they keep renewing his contract. Please somebody do the right thing for the sport and for the driver himself, are replace him. He has a career most drivers would kill for, and a lot of zeros in the bank account.
    This is just another of the fast brazilians the good old tommy byrne had to baby seat for during the 80’s..

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