Massa ‘used to speculation over Ferrari future’

F1 Fanatic Round-up

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In the round-up: Felipe Massa says that, after eight years with Ferrari, he used to speculation about his place at the team being under threat.

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Massa at Brisighella: “Let’s hope this award brings us luck in Monza” (Ferrari)

“I’m used to this situation, as it’s been like this since I started my career. The rumours mean nothing, all that matters is the faith the team has in me and I feel that very strongly.”

“Es geht um das ??berleben der Formel 1” (Die Welt, German)

Max Mosley tells Die Welt current FIA president Jean Todt has not done enough to control costs in F1.

Maldonado ignores his critics (ESPN)

“If you make a mistake you must be penalised. But the decision [the stewards] take sometimes can be quite strong. That’s my opinion.”

Future Stars – Felipe Nasr (Stood on the Podium)

“Nasr began karting aged just seven, inspired by his great hero, the late Ayrton Senna. Something about Felipe reminds me of his idol – his driving style is similar in places and possesses a level of consistency many drivers twice his age could only dream of.”

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Comment of the day

Nick recalls some more memorable qualifying sessions:

Austria and Belgium 1998 were very memorable for me.

Jean Alesi and Giancarlo Fisichella fighting over pole in Austria was an impressive sight, even if neither could stick around in the race. I think Damon Hill really outdid the car in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix as well, beating Michael Schumacher in wet conditions.
Nick (@NPF1)

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Happy birthday to Katederby, Notna and Derek Taylor!

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On this day in F1

Today in 1956 Juan Manuel Fangio won his fourth world championship by finishing second in the Italian Grand Prix. His former Mercedes team mate Stirling Moss won the race.

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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69 comments on “Massa ‘used to speculation over Ferrari future’”

  1. That tweet of yours is fantastic! Yup, we get it!

    1. Tweet of the year! :)

    2. Rofl yeah nice one Keith ;)

    3. definitely got it immediately, yeah

  2. Alonso leaving Ferrari? Or a baby coming?

    My guess is on the latter :) If so, congratulations.

    1. @mike-dee
      The old man believes that every child will slow you down by half a second, i just don’t want it to happen

      1. It’s irrelevant, Schuey had 2 kids during his career, he was 2 seconds faster than anyone else.

        1. @jeff1s
          That’s an exception Shumacher has had his kids in 1997 & 1999 you will argue by the statistics logic that he dominated the field after that in the early 2000’s but in term of performance Shumacher 90’s is not the same Shumacher 2000’s, well i don’t say that he dropped badly because during his entire career even after his comeback he was competitive but we feel that he lucked something (personal opinion which can can be wrong)
          BTW it is not a coincidence that on today’s grid only Felipe Massa who has a kid born in 2009 (the date in which he become his performance deficit ) even Mark Webber the oldest of the drivers doesn’t have kids (which maybe what made him competitive at that age )
          Ayrton Senna himself didn’t want to have a family during his years in F1 he said that it will compromise his career, he preferred to have short term relationships that’s why we saw him with many girlfriends

    2. or maybe him opening the museum he has been working on (where he wants to put all those helmets he got from other drivers)?

      1. Some days before there were a lot of twitts about opening his museum. Maybe this one will announce the opening.

    3. Jack (@jackisthestig)
      2nd September 2013, 9:09

      Maybe he’s ‘coming out’.

      1. LOL! @jackisthestig

        @keithcollantine as I expected it was a personal business. Alonso has bought a failed cycling team as per Spanish media

        http://www.marca.com/2013/09/02/ciclismo/1378120095.html

    4. hahaha exactly what i though, a baby or a switch to.. well… RB?

  3. 1. Massa, if you’re used to this speculation every year, perhaps you should consider why you haven’t improved enough to get rid of it. Nobody is speculating whether or not Hamilton or Vettel are going to get dropped by the team. There’s a reason for that.

    2. If anyone was paying attention to Alonso’s previous Twitter posts, they’d connect the dots and realise the exciting announcement is the opening of a narcissistic museum. Drivers do not get to drop hints about team moves or anything important over Twitter. Especially not Ferrari ones.

    3. Maldonado, you already got away with weaselling out of a life ban when you drove into a marshall. Shut up, you’re not being persecuted, you’re just a dangerous unpredictable driver.

    1. Well that hit the nail on the head ! +1 on everything.

    2. 1. Funny thing is, Massa still has a job every season to go through it again. Maybe 2014 will be different…

      2. Alonso is certainly going to tweet his move to Marussia to prove he can win in any car.

      3. Maldonado may not have to worry about strong decisions from the stewards next season.

    3. This post wasn’t cynical enough.

    4. + 1 for the Massa statement. Massa feels proud that he has survived the rumours and still has a seat at Ferrari. Little that he realise that these rumours surface every season because everyone thinks that he isn’t worthy of that drive.

    5. Massa resorting to “faith team has”… wow

    6. Excellent hairs, as per usual. I disagree with point two however, I think Alonso is about to tell us we “can get iPads at $350 by following this link.”

    7. I was wrong! He’s bought a cycling team.

      Well we can all rest easy in our beds knowing that important news is out of the way.

  4. When you have such a long list of penalties in just 3 years, you’re really not entitled to say much, dear Pastor…

  5. BTW, I bet Alonso is getting a new sponsor and that is really very very exciting…

  6. Alonso is going to start quoting epic Viking poetry.

    1. He finally finished the Edda and is going to ride Sleipnir like the true son of Odin, into Valhalla! #makeYggdrasilTremble

    2. Hahahaha! Excellent comment…

  7. I have important news coming these days … Stay tuned here on Twitter and on the Web.. !!!

    I think I have the inside information on Alonso’s imminent tweet. He is going to say that all the furore between him and di Montezemolo was a misunderstanding and that while it is true that Luca was calling for someone’s head, it was not for his but that of his teammate:

    When Emperor Luca suggests Samurai seppuku, the sage Samurai suggests subordinate samurai substitution. #CiaoFelipe

    1. hehe. Alonso announcing Felipe’s exodus. That would be something!! Not sure how magnanimous he would be this time :)

    2. I think it’s something personal. Maybe it’s a baby like @mike-dee said or a new business venture, maybe a book or something.

  8. I believe that Felipe Nasr is one of the finest talents to come through GP2 in quite a few years. He’s refreshingly mature and level-headed and, if he makes it to F1, he will go some way to improving the credibility of a series whose most recent exports have been labelled as careless crash-kids.

    1. For the commentator’s sakes we should have, when it finally happens, Felipe Massa out, Felipe Nasr in. :D

    2. You must be kidding me, first he has to start winning races..

      Frijns is definitly more talented, a shame he had such trouble in Belgium.

    3. I somewhat disagree with Nasr being like Ayrton. Yes, he’s consistent, but when it comes to showing a little more aggression he just can’t “make it stick”. He is very consistent, I’ll give him that, but I think he’ll really be a great competitor if he can just push himself that extra bit and turn that consistency into more race wins.

  9. So Maldonado plunges the car into a Force India and the stewards are harsh? That’s something I dislike about him, he’s always saying things like “I’m not changing the way I drive”, never taking responsability for all the accidents.

    1. Except that Sutil was responsible. Sutil cut across Maldonado, forcing Maldonado to take evasive action – and straight into di Resta. Didn’t you find it odd that Maldonado cut sharply to the right when the corner went left? The pit entry might have been to the righ, but Maldonado didn’t need to pit until he hit di Resta.

      1. @prisoner-monkeys It was clearly not Sutil’s fault. He was just going around the corner – Maldonado was making a hasty swerve into the pits without paying any attention to who was around him. He hit Sutil, then he turned again and hit Di Resta. That’s why the stewards punished Maldonado and no one else. He was entirely to blame.

      2. Sutil should have received a penalty for cutting Maldonado but what Pastor did right after the crash wasn’t Sutil’s fault. He steered to the right leaving his line (looked like he wanted to make it to the pits) and if you do that you gotta take a peek in the mirror first.

        1. @tmf42 Sutil was trying to get around the corner and overtake Maldonado. There is nothing in the rules which says he has to hold back and let Maldonado swing across into the pit lane. Sutil is 100% in the clear on this one.

          1. @keithcollantine furthermore if I remember correctly the rules “drivers may return to the road provided it is safe”, meaning that they have no priority at all… He deserves it entirely

          2. @keithcollantine – Sutil committed to the early apex with Maldonado next to him and Maldonado didn’t go for the pits at this point but tried to make the next corner and it didn’t look like he was trying to cut off Sutil. only once he was hit by Sutil it seems he tried to get back to the pits – there is a clear change of direction after that.
            Imo, Maldonado had nowhere to go and Sutil caused an avoidable collision by a slight misjudgment.

            However my statement before was too absolute – it’s just an opinion because I don’t have the data to make a sound judgement only a youtube video ;)

          3. Except Maldonado was clearly turning into the corner not the other way when Sutil made contact, that part was clearly Sutil’s fault. Theres no clear view of exactly what happened after but it did look as though maldonado tried to turn back towards the pits making the impact with Diresta his fault. As for @spoutnik s comment, none of the drivers had left the track at the time of impact(s) so I fail to see what that has to do with anything

          4. @skett

            Except Maldonado was clearly turning into the corner

            If you watch the video it is clear Maldonado is not going around the corner, he is heading towards the pits. In the moment before he struck Sutil’s car he made a last-ditch attempt to turn left and avoid the contact, but up until that point he was clearly heading for the pits and that is why they collided. At the point at which the pair make contact Sutil’s car is turning around the corner and Maldonado’s is heading towards the pit entry.

            Going into the corner Maldonado found several cars on the inside of him and tried to find a way through into the pits as if they weren’t there. It was never going to work. He was lucky to only take out one other car and get a penalty for a race he had already ruined through his own carelessness.

            Watching Sutil’s car, he clearly just arrives on the scene and tries to pass Maldonado. Sutil took a sufficiently wide line into the corner for another car to stay on the inside of him, perhaps two, but not one that was turning right into the pits. He’s not in a position to know Maldonado is trying to get into the pits and it’s no fault of his Maldonado drove into him.

          5. @keithcollantine
            You could be right, but when he moved over earlier it certainly looked to me like he was just trying to improve his line into the corner.

            If you are right and he was just turning left to avoid Sutil it was convenient timing since it is also the timing that would have turned left if just trying to make the corner (at least it appeared that way, but I’ve only seen it from the tv angle)

        2. I’m with @Keithcollantine here. Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTwYsSu_4pA
          Sutil gives Maldonado just enough room, but because Pastor navigates to the pits (and therefore abandons the inside line) they touch. But idiocy continues as Pastor refuse to learn from the mistake he just made and insists on making it to the pits even when he should have known there were cars at his right (because he ran too deep into the corner).

        3. Totally incorrect. Maldonado knew he was in that lap, and should never have had his car there in the first place. Should have been on the inside going into the bus stop.

          It’s just poor judgement basically, that cost Di Resta some points hence the punishment. Pastor’s failure to self-reflect again just makes himself look ridiculous.

          1. (sorry, that was meant as a reply to PM)

      3. Sutil (and Di Resta) were both taking perfectly normal/acceptable lines through the final double-hairpin.

        Maldo having been forced wide by Guitierrez then came back across the track clipping Sutil. Yes he was then unfortunate to career into Di Resta, but after clipping someone should probably have been a bit more circumspect! If he was always boxing that lap though, there was no reason he couldn’t have just let Guitierrez past and taken the more logical line into the pits.

        His lack of appreciation of fault/humility is staggering however.

    2. +1

      I find it very worrying that someone who is allowed to drive a car 300+ is incapable of self reflection and has very poor spatial awareness whilst racing.

      1. +1. To make a mistake or be too aggressive at one point in your career. Fine – no problem – just take it on the chin and learn from it. This attitude of i’m right and everyone else is wrong is infuriating. Ironically if he actually listed to the criticism and learned from his mistakes he could turn himself into quite a potent driver. Failing to listen and learn means he’s just going to be forever an occasional fast driver who makes too many aggressive moves and mistakes.

  10. Chris (@tophercheese21)
    2nd September 2013, 2:02

    The fact that Felipe is “used to the rumors”, isn’t a good thing.
    I get what he’s trying to say, but the fact that these rumors have come up every season for the past few years, isn’t something he should be proud of.

    1. I agree. But Ferrari are going to find it hard to get a driver that will move over without a fuss like Massa does and Alonso has him in his back pocket.

      Saying that, if he doesn’t pick up his performances, I say he should move to a team like Lotus or even Sauber – psychologically it’d give him a massive boost and I think we might see more of his speed once that happens. But I think it’d be a mistake to go for Caterham/Marussia (unless they make some serious progress next year) in which caase he’s just going to end up in Rubens’ situation. Either that or head to WEC or DTM.
      I say Sutil should go to Ferrari, I don’t think Hulkenberg would bite IMO, we know that once he gets there he’ll be #2 and I don’t see Ferrari changing that type of environment any time soon and I can see him as a future WDC but just hasn’t had the opportunities yet.

      1. @gfreeman I am not sure Ferrari would have Sutil after the incident in Singapore. I think this has spoiled his chances with the top 4 teams now.

        He is good but a criminal conviction doesn’t look good.

        1. I believe it was in China, and he didn’t actually go to jail, it was a suspended sentence (correct me if I’m wrong, I can’t remember what the final verdict was). Not excusable either way, but the details are vague which makes it a weird situation – i.e. not a clear-cut one (excuse the pun).

          That conviction hasn’t altered his ability to travel to China and he is a solid driver. Force India certainly have no issues with taking him back, and ultimately they chose him over Jules Bianchi (though that might also have a lot to do with extending their Mercedes engine supply).

  11. Massa shouldn’t be taking this sort of thing in his stride. He should be determined to get rid of such rumours, by turning in performances on the track that merit the seat he’s currently, undeservedly occupying.

    “If you make a mistake you must be penalised. But the decision [the stewards] take sometimes can be quite strong. That’s my opinion.”

    Why is it that Pastor has a complete inabiliy to accept blame? Does he think it a mere coincidence that he’s been penalised as many times and as harshly (though, often not harsh enough, if you ask me) as he has. The lad undoubtedly has some talent, but his attitude stinks. The stewards are not faultless by any means, but their leniency with you is more of a problem.

    P.S. Loved that tweet, Keith. Brilliant!

    1. petebaldwin (@)
      2nd September 2013, 15:02

      @goodyear92 – I know what you mean but I assume that if it was an option, Massa would turn in better performances. I doubt he’s going slow out of choice.

      For whatever reason (his injury, getting older, years as 2nd driver), he has lost that extra bit of pace that F1 drivers need to compete at the top. He gained some pace at the end of last year but it appears to have gone again. I can only assume that it’s a combination of lots of things (his injury, getting older, the knowledge that if he did manage to get in front of Alonso, he’d be told to give the position up); the one thing I do know is that there are lots of faster drivers out there (inside and outside of F1) who are more deserving of the seat than he is now.

  12. I would have loved it if Massa’s so-called “return to form” would have made him a race winner again, unfortunately Massa’s “return to form” usually means a couple of 6th place finishes instead of 9th and 10th. He’s not fast enough and it annoys me to no end that Ferrari kept him in that seat for far too long. I really like Massa as a person and used to really like him as a driver, but it’s time to quit. He should at least quit himself instead of being kicked out, it’s no shame to quit if you’re obviously not fast enough anymore. Just go racing somewhere else, why not do what Webber did and go endurance racing or something? He could be a team leader somewhere else and I bet a lot of teams in different categories would love to have him onboard. I just don’t think he has a place in Formula 1 anymore, sadly enough.

    1. it’a nothing to be ashamed of*

    2. From a purely ‘working point of view’, there’s absolutely nothing to be ashamed of if you work for the same guys for 8 years, getting a great salary to be an ‘assistant’ within one of the biggest companies in the world. He’s driving the fastest Ferrari available for almost a decade now, so I guess you can get used to that, even if you’re not winning races.

      From a F1 fan point of view, he should have left along with Barrichello. Can’t wait to have another competitive driver in that car… it doesn’t even have to be a champion, just an Irvine or a Patrese would be enough for me.

  13. +1

    Better to go out on your own terms rather than having someone above you choose for you.

  14. If I had a reputation like Maldonado’s, I wouldn’t be worried about it either. It’s like Mark Webber’s luck, if it isn’t bad he wouldn’t have it.

  15. 2 great qualifying sessions. But one problem.

    Belgium Q was not wet. the race was but not Q

  16. “I’m used to this situation, as it’s been like this since I started my career. The rumours mean nothing, all that matters is the faith the team has in me and I feel that very strongly.”

    Think about it Massa, there is a very good reason your used to this situation?

    Because you have been underperforming for year’s and do not warrant retaining a Ferrari F1 race seat any longer. Yes you had a strong couple of seasons in F1 years ago and won races but sadly missed out on the Championship by one solitary point, but those days are long gone and never to be repeated.

  17. Raikkonen under-performed for one season and was fired with one year left on his contract. Not only has Massa under-performed but he’s been uncompetitive for nearly four seasons. Enough. Alonso’s in his fourth and looks like failing to deliver again yet being given the fastest package at the start of the season. Appeasing Alonso with a uncompetitive teammate has been an abject failure.

  18. So now Massa is saying he has gotten used to the speculation?

    Weird, I didn’t here such comments last year. Sounds like he’s given up hope for any clarity soon.

  19. Did Alonso become a Samurai Master,

  20. Alonso has just bought himself into the Euskaltel cycling team. Perhaps that’s what he was referring to?

  21. I’m I the only one who thinks Felipe Nasr is a better fit for Toro Rosso than Antonio Felix da Costa?

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