F1

he’s right. 2010 was.

Firstly I think that Massa just wants to downplay unwelcome rumours. He doesn’t want to admit openly that Ferrari is now Alonso’s team, while he is playing second fiddle, and that his future is uncertain. F1 drivers mostly sound optimistic when they talk about their future options. I remember Ralf Schumacher during his final days in F1…

However, combination Alonso-Massa is probably still the best one that’s available to Ferrari at the moment. Alonso obviously cannot live with a situation where his teammate is as good as him or even better. We saw that in 2007 in McLaren and we saw that on some occasions this year. So if Ferrari gets Kubica or Vettel alongside Alonso, I am quite sure that there will be trouble, which is why they might prefer to keep Massa as a decent number two driver.

“He’s right. 2010 was.”

I disagree. He had just came back from injuury after 8 months out so he was never going to be back at his best. He really struggled with the tyres last year (which is his own fault) but say next year he’s brilliant on the Pirelli’s will anyone care about last year? Hw got a new contract last year even when he was arguably underperforming it’s as it gets closer to the end of his contract that his performance will really matter. Last year could have been a blip or it could have beenn just him being slow compared to Alo but next season he’ll be better prepared and have tyres which are staying in F1 so his performance will be more relevant and a bigger indicator of where he will be in future seasons.

Massa’s always had this kind of speculation about his seat and maybe he enjoys being the underdog a little bit. He was inctredible in 08 when at the beginning of the season there were plenty of rumours about him, he was the underdog at Brazil 08 and he delivered and in Germany he was great so maybe he likes trying to rise to the occassion.

There isn’t really anyone who could replace him. Massa’s a brilliant team player even if he continues to be outpaced by Alo and would bend over backwards if Ferrari asked him to. Jules Bianchi is too young and inexperienced, Kubica is still an unknown with his pace because he’s only really had Heidfeld to push him and the German won and all of Ferrari’s other drivers aren’t that quick.

Disagree. 2010 was a write-off for Massa, so for 2011 he has to come back a lot stronger. The chances of him beating Alonso are frankly slim, but he needs to do a lot better than last year.

@Steph

To my mind, its not so much his performance that was the issue in 2010 because I completely agree that he needed time to recover, get up to racing speed etc.

His problem was that he needed to establish himself as the psychological equal to Fernando. And – through contract, or racecraft – he failed to do that.

The team is no longer Ferrari – its Fernando’s racing team, like it was Schumachers previously. Therefore, 2011 cannot hold much better for him in my view. I think for him to become a better driver he should move teams.

Realistically – that would never happen. He’s got a race winning seat as it is.

I think he already did the damage to his reputation this year though and the only way to recover it is to move. Therefore 2011 isn’t his make or break year, unless he moves teams. For now, 2010 was his make or break year and psychologically, he lost.

@Tommy I think Massas comments were in reply to what Luca Di Monte(can’t spell the rest) said – so I think they have been taken out of context slightly. But you’re right, on the face of it, they are hardly awe inspiring but unfortunately thats what the british press love to do!