F1 Fanatic

Where’s the evidence of the superiority of the Lotus? Yes, it has had good stints in a few races, but it doesn’t qualify well and the pace isn’t consistent. It’s getting better, but in a season where the races have been totally open and we’ve had so many different winners, to me the fact that the Lotus is yet to record a victory is rather telling. The Ferrari has won races, and it’s leading the championship. Raikkonen is no slouch, and can be relied upon to demonstrate the potential of the car. So, why would you think that the Lotus is better than the Ferrari when it hasn’t been faster than the Ferrari since probably the second race of the season, and is yet to win a race.

Fact is, Alonso is showing us what the Ferrari can do. Massa isn’t just miles behind Alonso, he’s miles behind all of his rivals in the cars which others are suggesting he might go into. No matter how you slice it, he’s been by far the worst driver in the top half of the grid, and I don’t see what any reasonably competitive team would stand to gain by employing him.

I’m thinking Massa could benefit from getting to another team. It’s a difficult position for him at Ferrari, because on the one hand, there’s no need for him to win races or run well in the Drivers’ Championship, as the team seems entirely content with Alonso pulling that off, on the other hand, it can’t just not matter where he finishes as the team would like to score the Constructors’ title, and they’re most likely going to miss out on that if things continue the way they do.

The tricky thing is that his results recently most likely won’t put him in a position where teams will cue up to hire him. All of the other top teams are filled up at the moment. A move to one of the backmarkers might not be advisable, though, because he’d either have to be as young as Kovalainen was when he went to what’s now Caterham, or face the realistic possibility that he might finish his career in that team at the back of the grid and be dropped at an opportunity the way Trulli was.

So what’s left, realistically, in my opinion, is the question of which ones of the midfield teams could benefit from exchanging one of their drivers for Massa. Which would be a circumstance where I’d point to teams like Sauber and Williams, which both have still pretty unexperienced drivers. That could be a situation where the team would appreciate more input from Felipe, and at the same time, his odds against his teammate would be significantly much better than competing against one of the quick champions, as things look with Alonso.

Maybe that kind of situation, combined with a lot of people basically having written him off already, could help him.

The big if behind this line of reasoning, of course, would be whether one of these teams would actually even want to part ways with one of their current drivers. I think with Sauber, it pretty much depends on how the question of Perez’s future is going to be solved. Williams, on the other hand, might be more inclined to look into promoting Bottas, rather than hiring someone from the outside.

Otherwise, I personally would consider migrating over to one of the Le Mans prototype series, as the cars are close to F1 tech and driveability, and generally, sportscars have been one of the major fallback options for drivers whose chances in F1 diminished.

“The Alonso-Massa partnership right from the start in 2010 was meant to be one of the strongest If not the strongest”

I was not aware that anybody had thought that!

@dot_com . I’ve never held Massa in high regard either, but in 2007 and 2008 he showed some real potential. He could mix it up with Fernando, Lewis and Kimi on a regular basis. Outperforming Kimi in 2008 was probably the highlight of his CV.

Unfortunately, a driver is only as good as his last race… so his CV really doesn’t even matter right now. On his current form, I do not see why any team other than Marrussia and HRT would show interest in Massa.

Red Bull – The team wouldn’t consider Massa even if Adrian Newey’s life depended on it
Mclaren – No place for him there
Lotus – Based on Massa’s current form, both their drivers seem a league above him
Mercedes – Paul Di Resta, Hulkenberg & Kobayashi all look like better replacements for Schumi than Massa
Sauber – Likes young and fast drivers. Massa is neither
Toro Rosso – Has the same driver requirements as Sauber. Looks for young guns with potential
Williams – Are happy with the money both their drivers bring, and have a highly rated test driver itching for Bruno’s seat. If Frank wasn’t impressed by Bruno’s performances this year, he will not be impressed by Massa’s performances either
Force India – They have two drivers that are way faster and younger than Massa
Caterham – Kovalainen is strong and Petrov brings his bags of money

I think it’s probably the end of the road for Massa

The most like destination for Massa is Sauber. And i see Perez moving to Ferrari.

That being said, after I defended Massa in my previous posts, I can also criticize him;

The reason to why Schumacher was able to win the 2003 championship by a mere 2 points was because he had Barrichello constantly taking points off his rivals and winning races when Schumi wasn’t up there. That’s something Felipe hasn’t been able to do since 2010, he’s not a consistent second driver. Alonso would like a #2 driver, but not someone who always manages to be driving in P15 for whatever reason. I’m sure Fernando would like a strong support driver himself.