Massa says “unacceptable” failure cost him podium

2013 British Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Felipe Massa believes he was on course for a podium finish in the British until he suffered a tyre failure.

The Ferrari driver gained five places at the start, moving up to sixth. “I think the race today was a fantastic start, fantastic first lap,” he said.

“It was great pace today, our car was very competitive. And then suddenly I was third or fourth and then I saw myself last because of a very dangerous situation, you know, with the tyres. Which was was not just with me it happened with many other drivers today.

“And then the race was again very good after that. You cannot say you’re not happy with a sixth place looking at everything that happens in the race. I am. But today I was going to finish on the podium. I am disappointed because I didn’t finish in the podium not because of my fault or because of strategy or whatever but because of unacceptable situation from the tyres.”

Massa was grateful the tyre didn’t fail at higher speeds: “I was a little bit fortunate because it was in corner five. I had a lot of place to go and stop the car and carry on.

“But is very dangerous. If it happen in another place it can be very dangerous and have a big crash. And that is not acceptable. I think our safety is the most important that. There’s a lot of talk about ‘this tyre is hard, it’s better for one team, the soft is better for the other team’. This counts less compared to our safety.”

He admitted that after the failure he was worried about pushing , “thinking maybe it will happen again”.

“But I was just pushing. I give in the God’s hand. It’s not a great feeling to do but that’s our situation. So that’s why they need to do something for the tyres.”

2013 British Grand Prix

Browse all 2013 British Grand Prix articles

Image © Ferrari/Ercole Colombo

Author information

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...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

31 comments on “Massa says “unacceptable” failure cost him podium”

  1. Massa’s start was phenomenal, would’ve loved to see an onboard replay of it. What a shame the puncture was for him, it was looking as if it was the first time in a few races where he was gonna beat Alonso.

    1. Hear, hear. I feel for Massa. he just can’t catch a break

    2. Yeah, the only part we got to see was where he just flew past Webber on the inside!

    3. As intothebarrier ( F 1 gamer ) would say it

      “In the start, He left alonso for chips “

  2. So all the lovers of 2013 Pirellis now know what Red Bull meant when they were talking about SAFETY.

    1. @jcost: exactly the point. When Vettel or RB talk about safety, then it is a case of sour grapes. I remember Vettel had clearly said some weeks ago that should we wait for some serious accident to occur before taking action.

    2. @jcost – Exactly.

    3. @jcost I hereby submit my apology letter :) . But, ……yeah …ok.. I agree

      1. Cool @hamifan ;)
        Just for laughs, here’s some highlights I found from before:

        @nick101

        This quote should read ” I think we’ve seen a couple of occasions this year where, I don’t want to talk bad about people, but these tires haven’t suited our car and we no longer have the fasted car on the grid, they need to do better!”

        @force-maikel

        Red Bull is pulling the safety card now but pirelli insists every tyre had a puncture trough debris. Case closed in my opinion, shut up and improve your car, stop trying to get what you want trough backroom deals

        @antoniocorleone

        Come on, its simple, they give you the material and you build with it. […]The only thing we can say to Ferrari and Lotus is CONGRATULATIONS.

        @todfod

        Exactly. Its the rules isn’t it? If it was such a huge safety concern, you would expect Pirrelli to get on it anyways.[…] The fact is Red Bull wants to change the tyres to suit its car better… and they will continue to pressure Pirrelli into doing exactly that.

        But here’s the best one:

        @obviously

        I see this clown is keeping up his act!

        The way I understand the delaminations issue, is that delaminations aren’t actually dangerous at all.

        Yeah, delaminations aren’t dangerous. Like how jumping in front of a car is safe.

        This last guy goes on to say:

        And then his fans are wondering why so many people don’t like him and don’t have much respect for him. I’ve never seen someone moan like this about something that is the same component for all. […] If Red Bull is so worried about our poor sport and fans, they wouldn’t try so hard to give it a bad publicity in the media.

        I think the FIA and Pirelli between themselves have done a great job giving F1 bad publicity!

        1. @david-a
          Firstly, I think its slightly disrespectful calling people out like you have.
          Secondly, I’m not to sure if it was a Pirelli Issue this time around as there are rumours linked to the kerbs and Camber/Tyre Pressures used by the teams. No one knows the exact issue yet, but Gary Anderson believes its to do with the Kerbs so I respect his opinion more than this Pirelli Bashing you have going on here.

          1. @giggsy11

            1) Okay, I accept that it might be a little disrespectful towards those users. Still, the criticism was unfair, especially over a safety issue that is clearly prevalent.

            2) And I respect the opinion of one of the best drivers in the sport currently, and probably of all time, Fernando Alonso, who didn’t believe that the kerbs were an issue. Blaming the kerbs would be valid if and only if the kerbs were new for this year, and for this championship’s race.

          2. @david-a

            I agree the criticism was unfair so I’m glad you cleared that up.

            Also being a Huge Ferrari fan I do too respect Alonso’s opinion. Of course this isn’t the best argument to support Pirelli but Maybe the kerbs pushed the somewhat already fragile tyres past their limit. Its not the best defence, but I think that after Pirelli’s improvements being Vetoed and the weather not helping them judge their developmental tyre its difficult to expect them not to have produce a better tyre so, what can you expect from them.

          3. @giggsy11
            You have a good point with the weather going against what Pirelli could have done, and especially with some of the teams vetoing Pirelli’s planned improvements/changes. The FIA and teams are at least partially to blame.

            Btw, I did mean that the criticism towards Vettel/RBR was unfair, just to clear that up.

        2. @david-a

          I call *******! Absolute and utter crap!

          Yes, quite obviously after what happened at Silverstone there is an issue with the tires that needs sorting, but prior to this, what was the problem exactly?

          What big safety concerns were there??

          You don’t think it’s a little strange that the biggest people pulling the ‘safety’ card where the very ones who were struggling to make their car work with the tires?

          Like I said, as it turns out, there is an issue that now needs sorting, but prior to this weekend Red Bull and Mercedes were simply trying to get the tires changed by playing the safety card – simple as that. If it really was such a HUGE concern prior to this last weekend, why exactly weren’t ALL the teams moaning???

          And besides, as Ant Davidson pointed out during his analysis, the tires have already been changed compared to the previous failures we’ve seen.

          1. @nick101

            The fact is, there is a clear safety concern, and there was one when we had delaminations earlier in the year. Pirelli might have made “changes”, after initially blaming “debris”, but the concern has been proven to remain. Therefore, I call your whining, and your claims that RBR, Vettel and Merc were exclusively playing a “safety card”, to be the “absolute and utter crap”.

    4. I, too, like how it hit both the teams who were complaining about the tires before (Mercedes) and the teams that refused to agree to the change (Ferrari). Tires obviously don’t have favorites, they will blowout or delaminate on anybody.

      Except, apparently, Red Bull… you know, the team that everyone said didn’t make the car for the tires.

  3. Massa should blame his team as Ferrari is one of the teams that vetoed the tire construction change idea.

  4. I seriously doubt he would have been. Hamilton’s pace looked pretty hot and I’m sure Raikkonen would have been in contention.

  5. In the end, a great recovery by Massa after the disappointment of qualifying yesterday and the tyre blow up issue of today.

  6. “But is very dangerous. If it happen in another place it can be very dangerous and have a big crash. And that is not acceptable. I think our safety is the most important that. There’s a lot of talk about ‘this tyre is hard, it’s better for one team, the soft is better for the other team’. This counts less compared to our safety.”

    He admitted that after the failure he was worried about pushing , “thinking maybe it will happen again”.

    “But I was just pushing. I give in the God’s hand. It’s not a great feeling to do but that’s our situation. So that’s why they need to do something for the tyres.”

    Come on, in what year are we living? 1994? Drivers are relying on God to end the race safely. This can’t be right.

    1. tattsbrah (@xbarrettmatex)
      1st July 2013, 8:31

      What’s wrong with that?

  7. Massa always thinks he could have won practically the race if something hadn’t happened. Yet if nothing happens, he doesn’t get a podium either.

    1. @patrickl Well, Massa was on course for a podium this time. I think Massa deserves a lot of criticism for his driving, but given his position this time I think he has a point here. Furthermore, Massa usually accepts his blame when he makes his mistakes, pretty harsh criticism from you there.

      1. Masas was 4th with Webber, Alonso and Hamilton still coming from behind. At best he would have been 6th or 7th.

        Point is, he pretty much always slides down the order during races. When something happens he blames that and claims he could actually have made up several places, when nothing specific “happens” he’s just quiet.

        Nothing harsh, just observation.

        BTW Massa is not one to accept blame. That’s just nonsense.

    2. Alonso could have been faster than him.

  8. Massa is correct in saying that it is unacceptable. However I don’t think he would have quite made the podium. Maybe a 4th or 5th. Hamilton lost the race win because of an explosion. It is unacceptable for there to be FIVE tyre failures during a race weekend. Pirelli have managed to do better in previous seasons, but this season they are doing a pathetic job in ensuring the safety of drivers.

  9. Ryan (@ryanisjones)
    30th June 2013, 23:24

    I don’t see how he believes he would have been on the podium. If no tyres had failed the podium would have been Hamilton, Vettel and Rosberg / Webber.

  10. If there had been no failures in the race, Massa might have got one or two points. He probably finished about 3 places higher than he would have if others hadn’t had failures.

  11. MG421982 (@)
    1st July 2013, 10:27

    Good joke, Massa ! Keep dreamin’ ! Having the best start and being one of the fastest in the 1st stint… doesn’t mean you’re going to win the race.

  12. It was a terrific start by Massa no doubt. But about podium not sure. Even if he was third he will have to move over and let Alonso take that position. There is no second thoughts about it in anybody’s mind including Massa. If Alonso was first or second then he would been allowed to take the podium.

Comments are closed.