F1 Fanatic

some good stuff, surprised no one has mentioned the alonso factor directly, if he,s up against alonso and his chums he has no chance
mind you apart from, vettel, bunson, hammy, alonso and (the former) herr schu, he,s still alot better than the rest of em

wonder how he would do in a williams next year?

“mind you apart from, vettel, bunson, hammy, alonso and (the former) herr schu, he,s still alot better than the rest of em”

Sbl is my new favourite :P

I usually slag you off lol, but that was a good comment!

While he wouldn’t be 6th in the championship in a Williams, spending a little time out of the spotlight wouldn’t do his rather deflated reputation any harm. I can picture him doing much better than Barrichello is now.

While a lot of people might say that Massa was almost champion in 2008, we have to remember it was also the season when he was gifted a race win. Remember Spa 2008.

I don’t you can use the ‘ifs and buts’ argument for 2008 as both drivers were affected by so many factors beyond their control that you can’t realistically judge a season based on what would have happened.

I think Massa would probably benefit from a new Environment. If Force India have this sort of form in 2013 I think that’d be a good fit, Williams also. I’d say Mercedes would be a great place for him to go but they have so many drivers lined up that it would be too unlikely to consider.

Extraneous circumstances like engine failures are something that can be put down to ‘fate’ or just plain unluckiness. Yes you could say it balances out with other events, but if Hamilton had developed a problem that meant he had to coast to 3rd in spa it would be very different to what actually happened. A stewarding decision like Spa 08 (the only race I’ve been to) is a miscarriage of justice. And there was that questionable decision in Japan with Bourdais. Don’t get me wrong, Massa drove well that year and it is a shame he was held back with things outside his control, but that is something that happens in F1- so are bad stewards decisions, but they really shouldn’t be. F1 is a team sport, so much as it is heartbraking it should be expected to some extent for the team to let a driver down.

Still ifs and buts, but that’s the way I see it.

I’m, going to go out on a limb and say that 2007-2009 was the blip, not what we’re seeing now.

Back in 2007 realistically only two cars could win a race – some days “all” you had to do was beat your team-mate. Massa had his good days and scored 3 wins (nearly 4 but for championship necessities).

In 2008, the wins were realistically only between him and Hamilton for most of the season, some days the Ferrari was better and Massa got his wins through good drives.

The next year the car was bad, but Kimi was still in his slump at most circuits and Massa took the car roughly where it was meant to go, sometimes out-performing it.

In 2010, Massa was a bit rusty after his accident but now he had Alonso as direct competition. This year he’s been around 6th, which is where you’d expect the slower of the two guys in the third-fastest car to be, sometimes being beaten by good performances by equal or better drivers like Rosberg.

So I don’t see it as anything going wrong for Massa, rather what went right before.