[sozavele]

In a recent news report Stefano Mancini has slammed Felipe Massa by saying he is ‘only wasting petrol’, I suppose as an Italian he is a patriotic Ferrari supporter and wants them on the top, but I agree with him, Felipe is essentially wasting the petrol for that car, Felipe currently is underperforming and I think quite frankly does not deserve that seat and somebody else could probably get some better performances out of the car as Fernando Alonso has done.
Do you agree with Mancini if not why?
Reference – http://totalf1.com/details/view/413759/Massa_only_wasting_petrol_slams_journalist/

[Prisoner Monkeys]

I think Mancini is overstating Massa’s performances and downplaying the shortcomings of the car, myself.

[sozavele]

I do agree that Mancini may be using a bit too much hyperbole on Massa and the car but I do agree with the underlying thought that Massa is underperforming and needs to improve but I think he was a tad agressive with that report.

[Girts]

I agree that Ferrari should replace Massa with another driver and I believe that Massa has to take a new direction as soon as possible. It looks like it’s only getting worse, his first three races of this season remind me of Luca Badoer’s struggles in 2009.

However, I don’t like that journalists don’t show enough respect for the F1 drivers. Every F1 driver is a hero, even is some are less great than the others. It’s not a problem with Italian journos only, German RTL often bash Massa as well. I understand that there will always be mocking comments from internet trolls but real journalists should behave themselves.

[Anonymous]

Sure he is not as good as Fernando but this is an Italian and Ferrari have cocked up. Can you really blame him for shifting the blame?

[sozavele]

@carnivorouspope I mentioned that in my first post, as an Italian he thinks Ferrari should be on the top and Massa is preventing that, I agree with you that he is angry with Massa for pulling them down but I also believe it may be time for Massa to take a new direction in Formula 1 or another motorsport.

[Keith Collantine]

Does anyone have a link to the original article (even if it’s in Italian). All I get clicking that link are some weird pages with botched CSS.

[sozavele]

I didn’t post the link I preferred because it was Italian here it is – http://www.fan-f1.com/f1/2012/actualite/12893-F1-Massa-bon-a-gaspiller-de-lessence-pour-la-presse-italienne.html

[Anonymous]

I think Massa is under performing for sure. Last race wasn’t that bad and although it was four places to Alonso it was only 5 seconds. I think Massa is not the problem at Ferrari right now at all and they can blame him as much as they want but even if he was replaced right now I doubt we would see his replacement do any better.

[sozavele]

I think this years car is not helping at all, it makes it harder to identify the problem because the car is not fast compared to the McLaren, if they had a car which saw Alonso win every race and Massa lagging behind then it would be clear what the problem is, we can see Alonso is coping better than Massa but both the car and Massa are underperforming so it is harder to pin the blame on just one thing.

[W-K]

I think the problem is really that Ferrari took him on in the first place. At the start of his F1 career he was wild and inconsistent, and lots of people questioned it. The only excuse probably they wanted a number 2 to Michael Schumacher. But he did improve and that was probably down to coaching by MSC and Rob. We have all heard Rob’s comments, the most recent when he told Massa not to brake into a corner.

People are going to say, but Massa has won races and was almost WDC in 2008. Well look at the facts, how many races has he won when not on the front row? 0 and how many races has he won since MSC came out of retirement? 0

Therefore when you look at it, it seems Massa needs lots on coaching to produce results and all that coaching after so many years hasn’t stuck and has to still continue from his engineer. To be honest, I am very surprised he kept his seat at the end of last season.

And in Italy F1 is Ferrari and if they don’t perform the press will complain loud and long and not in very gentlemanly terms. So it’s not very surprising that these comments have been made. In fact they were to be expected.

If Massa doesn’t improve then I expect he or someone at the top will go soon.

[sozavele]

I think Massa should go, an Italian would say he is wasting petrol because a somebody else could probably get more out of the car as Alonso has, back at Maronello they are probably having to either scrap this years car to make an absolute legend next year or try and radically improve this one because if equation is bad massa+bad car=trouble.
I think Massa staying at the team is damaging more team morale, they would have had a boost when Alonso won in Malaysia but when you look at Massa as an overview of his performances of the past few years it is a bit of a kick in the teeth, how one driver can do well in the car and the other can barely get it into the final part of qualifying if lucky.

[sozavele]

However back to wasting petrol, I agree with him he is not good enough at the moment and I doubt he will improve, I expect Massa will get the entire season but we wont see him there next year because he is essentially wasting petrol, I agree with Mancini as an Italian he is angry that Massa is pulling the team down. Massa is underperforming but he is also a scapegoat in this, because he is underperforming it makes it very easy for the Italian Media to put the blame directly on him which in itself is unfair and not entirely true as the car makes up the equation to.

[Ryan Williams]

It is no secret the F2012 is an absolute pig of a car. Ferrari are way off the pace currently and it won’t be a quick fix.

I think Felipe’s confidence and morale have been at rock-bottom ever since Germany 2010. Felipe got used to a team that absolutely loved him, even when Kimi was the world champion, and now that team has got fully behind Alonso and left him alone. Asking him to give up a well-deserved victory, for a now vain cause, will have cut deep.

Another issue to point out is that the F2012 has clearly been designed to suit Alonso. It may have horrendous high-speed oversteer and low-speed understeer, but Alonso has been able to get results from the car that only he can. Massa’s driving style does not suit the F2012 one bit and until he feels confident in the car, he won’t be able to push for good, solid results.

I sincerely hope Ferrari keep Felipe on, but I fear they may already be working on the seat-mould for a certain young Mexican

[Keith Collantine]

@formula-1 Given that the quotes are from La Stampa I don’t think that is the original article.

[Author]

Posts