Massa unhappy with tyre choice for final stint

2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Felipe Massa says he would have finished higher up the order in Abu Dhabi had he been given the correct tyres for his final stint.

Massa ran ahead of team mate Fernando Alonso early in the race but finished behind him. Massa ran the medium tyres in the final stint while Alonso used the softs.

Massa told reporters after the race Ferrari originally considered making a single pit stop:

“It was a bit frustrating not manage the one-stop but I think it was a bit difficult to do one-stop anyway. The pace maybe was a little bit too quick to save the tyres for one stop.

“But then we choose to stop the second time and maybe we didn’t mount the right tyres. We mounted the [medium] tyres and the other one was maybe more than a second quicker per lap so that was a little bit of a problem with the race.

“It was a race to finish in the top five, top six, and we didn’t manage it because definitely the end of the race.”

“It was a tough race, fighting from the beginning to the end,” he added. “Unfortunately I didn’t finish where I was supposed to but it was definitely a race that we fight a lot and that’s important.”

2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

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Image © Ferrari/Ercole Colombo

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Keith Collantine
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24 comments on “Massa unhappy with tyre choice for final stint”

  1. they just gave failonso the free way as he wasn’t able to pass Massa so they have took Massa away… “mistake”…yeah.

    1. Obviously. I mean, Ferrari must value Alonso’s image more than out-scoring Mercedes in the constructor’s championship.

    2. As much as I’d love that to be the case… it’s not. I sincerely don’t think Ferrari would be dumb enough to sacrifice valuable points for the WCC in order to get Alonso in front.

      1. Or Alonso is just a better driver…

        1. @Kingshark1
          Course he is the better driver man, but man o man his legacy will be really hurt if Massa gets the beter record H2H. It will be an embarrasement.

          1. @Kingshark
            Course he is the better driver man, but man o man his legacy will be really hurt if Massa gets the beter record H2H. It will be an embarrasement.

  2. Massa’s tire was already over that’s why he was very closed by Alonso with a couple of laps older tyres. Massa can not keep runnning until 45th lap with that pace. But Alonso could do that.

  3. Massa pitted quite a bit earlier than Alonso for his final stint. Massa’s immediate pace would definitely have improved on the softs and he would have almost certainly challenged Hamilton if not passed him, but how much of a drop off in performance would we have seen in the last few laps? It might have ended up with the same result in the end regardless of tyre choice.

    1. But it could’ve been worth trying, no?

      1. Not really – he only had scrubbed softs left having used them all in Quali but had new mediums still. If he had new softs then maybe

  4. Stopped later than Alonso in the first stint, still managed to go slower than Alonso at the end of the second stint. Wonder if the softs would have lasted he race distance. Alosno did 11 laps whereas Massa would have had to do 17 on them.

    If the tires faded at the end, it would have been a disaster for Ferrari. Right choice I would say.

    1. Alonso lost untold seconds first trying to overtake Felipe Massa and then standing behind in clean air to save his tyres when his pace could have been better. I used to like Felipe but now he is only a liability for Ferrari, and has been so for years. Cant wait to see him go.

  5. When you think about it, it’s actually tragic how the race got away from him. Despite running the softs for a long first stint, he held 5th place on merit after overtaking Hamilton, not to mention he (as well as Alonso of course) was on much fresher tyres than the likes of Hamilton and Hulkenberg. Yet after pitting later than Hamilton he got out behind, and was unable to close him down in the end. So dissapointing, when it was going so well for once. Had he made his second pit stop on the same lap as Hamilton he would’ve stayed ahead, and probably finished 6th or possibly 5th, but the strategy he used just didn’t work out for him at all in the end.

    1. He is 2 slow he gets slower during the race, what i loved was the fact his overtake on Ham meant zero becuase Smedley is clearly still bitter about Hockenheim 2008. Who had the last laugh Rob? Ha ha

  6. Massa and his excuses, maybe is time to think about the races and not beating Alonso in qualy compromising the setup for the races. That’s his only goal in life.

    1. why didnt they do one stop with massa as he went to lap 18 in first stint, switching to a 2 stop just wasted them extra laps at the start. i think he would have got 5th had he done one stop. everytime its going well for him ferrari screw him up somehow. i think he has been doing a really good job since he left ferrari but still had bad luck and i think he is back to 08 quali form but the ferrari car along with medium tires still need to be improved in the races.

    2. @zoomracing Ferrari clearly just wanted to get Massa out of the way, there was no reason to put him on the medium tires otherwise

      1. Like wearing out his tyres before Alonso?

  7. Sorry but I agree with Massa, the team made a “mistake” in his pit stop and fitted the wrong tyres. How people on this website can say the team is not biased to Alonso. I feel sorry for Smedley, he must be the only person on Massa’s side in the whole team. Alonso has loads more mechanics, most of the pitwall and ill be happy when Massa goes to Williams and gets a bit more support. BTW what does the ED Button mean when Smedley tells him to press it.

    1. So correct me if Im wrong…arent race strategies agreed between Team Boss, Race Engineer and Driver?

      You guys on this site are pathetic at times. Always looking for a conspiracy theory. Get a life.

      1. You dont believe conspiracy theory? Try a senior management job!

      2. @austus and @jaymenon10 What you on about man? Do you always get silly comments out of your rear like that without checking the facts? Massa did 18 laps on the softs on the first stint with high fuel load. What makes you think he wouldn’t manage a 17 lap stint on the latter part of the race with low fuel? Besides his lap times on the medium tires were not dropping at all when he came in for the last stop, so he could probably do a few more laps on the medium if Ferrari wanted to minimize his time on the softs. He basically got done by Ferrari.

  8. Scuderia Kabayo
    3rd November 2013, 19:41

    What a dumb call to put on mediums! For ferrari’s sake, i hope it was deliberate. Sounds desperate to hear that they just waned to try both strategies – kinda like saying, “we dont know which one will work, so we’ll just try both!”

  9. Sorry Massa, you got pranked!

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