F1 Fanatic

Some brazilian news outlets have reported that Massa wasn’t openly critical of the car (that was just to get your attention ;), but did make some pretty open remarks. He stated that the car is no where near it was at the same time last year, answered a question about negative surprises in the affirmative and made it clear various times that the car need “a whole lot of work”. He made it clear that the start was not at all promising. Any thoughts?

I wouldn’t look at the sources and say that he is ciricizing the car, I mean I am guessing your English speak, translated quotes always mean different to what they acutally meant.

The interview is probably the same as what is on Adam Cooper’s blog.

http://adamcooperf1.com/2012/02/08/felipe-massa-its-just-the-beginning-of-a-big-job/

Hehehehe… I did understand that he was referring to the overall project, but he did express disapointment and confirmed it after being asked again… he knew what he was doing. He could’ve said “this is a new project, that’s what one would expect, yada yada”, but he confirmed that there have been unpleasant surprises and that he does feel like it’s very looks very steep to get up that hill.
Of course there is no base yet to analyze the car (although it is not a good sign), but what does it mean then that Massa was so ready to assume being quite negative about the car?

Prost did that once, got sacked.

I doubt Perez will be as openly critical about his Ferrari next year

THIS is why ferrari and fillipe have stuck together – he’s a strong team player.

When it was suggested that the car looked difficult to drive, Massa said: “It’s a lot of work. As I said, we tried so many different things with the car, so many runs we go out with not everything in the car to do the lap time, just to collect data. It’s different than in the past, the programme is different, and it’s also more complicated for us because we tried so many things just looking for the performance of a piece in the car that we’re trying.”

just goes to show how much work is required to compete at the highest level. it also shows how dumb the testing restrictions are. what other sport prevents players from non-championship games, never mind severe restrictions on practice?! the intention of testing restrictions was to generate parity through cost-cutting, but it has had the opposite effect because an early deficit is very difficult to overcome. meanwhile spending by any true contender hasn’t decreased, it’s just moved to less productive areas.