2012 Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix

glendo · Mar 25, 2012

does anyone else here think massa will be looking for a new job this season ???

Chris Preston · Mar 25, 2012

glendo said:
does anyone else here think massa will be looking for a new job this season ???

Im tired of people chirping massa... its not his fault ferrari can't do anything this year and even after he put in his last lap the team messaged him saying good effort so they don't think hes doing that poorly.

Josh Barton · Mar 25, 2012

Chris Preston said:
Im tired of people chirping massa... its not his fault ferrari can't do anything this year and even after he put in his last lap the team messaged him saying good effort so they don't think hes doing that poorly.

Yes, Ferrari do have a poor car. But Alonso is smashing him race after race by large margins. Which is concerning.

glight · Mar 25, 2012

3 tenths is not a massive margin. It is significant but not enough to say Massa is finished. We should wait and see how his race goes.

I am not a Massa fan but if Schumi is defending him then I think we do need to wait before we judge. Everyone is so quick to accept Hamiltons bad season as bad luck, why not the same for Massa?

Ultimately Luca is right: this season is make or break for him though.

Chris Preston · Mar 25, 2012

Josh Barton said:
Yes, Ferrari do have a poor car. But Alonso is smashing him race after race by large margins. Which is concerning.

Yeah but Alonso is also a two time world champion, if he isn't doing better than Massa then I'd say he'd be out of a job as well. Massa has had a lot of bad luck over the last couple of years, and it's been shown that Ferrari use him as a pawn to help Alonso so as long as he does that job well I'd say he's fine. It will be interesting to see how he does today hopefully he can make up some places and be top 10.

My prediction for the race is:
1) Hamilton
2) Schumacher (being optimistic there)
3) Button
4) Vettel
5) Räikkönen.

Come on rain

Josh Barton · Mar 25, 2012

I dont think Massa's performance can be put down to bad luck (in recent years). Last season, of the races that Alonso and Massa both finished in, Massa only beat Alonso twice out of 16 races, both early in the season. Also, he only out qualified him twice. And in the majority of those races he didnt look like seriously challenging Alonso's pace, which led to Alonso out performing him massively in the championship. Sure, he had some things go against him, but the stats add up, he just wasnt as quick. 3 tenths in the yesterdays qualy may not seem like much, but this has been going on for a while. Massa was once very quick (2008 springs to mind) but now its starting to reflect badly on the team, particularly with the poor car.

glight said:
3 tenths is not a massive margin. It is significant but not enough to say Massa is finished. We should wait and see how his race goes.

I am not a Massa fan but if Schumi is defending him then I think we do need to wait before we judge. Everyone is so quick to accept Hamiltons bad season as bad luck, why not the same for Massa?

Ultimately Luca is right: this season is make or break for him though.

I cant compare Hamilton's season to Massa's. Hamilton still showed he could match Button for pace and win races, Massa barely showed anything. He cant be that unlucky.

However, I do now agree that they wont ditch him before the end of the season. He could help in development of the car. he has the experience. What lies ahead for him beyond this season will surely be outside of Ferrari.

Chris Preston · Mar 25, 2012

Also it can be unfair to compare teammates like that. Lets look at Vettel and Webber; on paper Webber is far behind Vettel, in fact almost the same amount of point difference as there was between Alonso and Massa last year, but Vettel is obviously there number one driver as is Alonso so they will put more work into their cars first and make them their first priority. This doesn't necessarily mean Webber should be replaced, it just means Vettel is better than he is.

Also what I mean by bad luck is Massa retired three times last year and had a few incidents that cost him time (whether his fault or others) which you could argue is the reason he's so far behind Alonso.

Josh Barton · Mar 25, 2012

Chris Preston said:
Also it can be unfair to compare teammates like that. Lets look at Vettel and Webber; on paper Webber is far behind Vettel, in fact almost the same amount of point difference as there was between Alonso and Massa last year, but Vettel is obviously there number one driver as is Alonso so they will put more work into their cars first and make them their first priority. This doesn't necessarily mean Webber should be replaced, it just means Vettel is better than he is.

Also what I mean by bad luck is Massa retired three times last year and had a few incidents that cost him time (whether his fault or others) which you could argue is the reason he's so far behind Alonso.

I ignored all races in which either driver retired when I compared them

Its true what you say, Im just worried that the gap is going to get bigger as the season progresses as it tended to last year. Im interested as to what Ferrari's plans after post Massa.

As for Massa's career after Ferrari, Id love to see him back in a Sauber. But Im just kinda notsalgic

Eric Parker · Mar 25, 2012

Rain rain rain! Its on its way.

Victor Ivanov · Mar 25, 2012

As we are expecting a rain start I have to mention that on the first 3 places we have a wet weather specialist, damp master and rain master

Hampus Andersson · Mar 25, 2012

Yea that is true

i actually thought we would dodge the race but i was so wrong on that, hopefully there's no red flag though.

Scott Webber · Mar 25, 2012

Josh Barton said:
Yes, Ferrari do have a poor car. But Alonso is smashing him race after race by large margins. Which is concerning.

but we all know Alonso is extremely good on track, even if he has a bad car, i know he's trying his damm best to get where he is, unfortunatly it's still not enough.

Massa needs his car tweaked more, theres only so much a driver can take, they also need the car to work to get good results, IMO Massa is doing "ok" just a shame about last weekend.