Felipe Massa believe he has got on top of the difficulties he was experiencing with the 2010 tyres at the start of the season.
Massa was out-qualified by Fernando Alonso in four of the first five races of the year and often seemed to be off his team mate’s pace.
But in Istanbul he out-qualified Alonso and finished ahead of him on the track. Speaking to the Daily Telegraph he said:
The only thing I have found tough this season is the problems I have had with the tyre temperatures in Australia, China and Spain. But I knew it was a technical problem. In the last race I was back to normal. Ultimately the car is just not good enough.
Felipe Massa
His struggles led to speculation he would be replaced at Ferrari at the end of the year. But he dismissed the reports saying:
I think sometimes people don’t know what they are talking about. I mean, look, nobody cares about Mark Webber, then he wins two races and all of a sudden he is amazing. Now Sebastian is ‘crumbling under the pressure’.
After two races people change their minds very quickly. The fact is there are lots of drivers who are capable of winning the championship.
Felipe Massa
OEL
7th June 2010, 10:12
Nice to hear! Now the only thing that needs to chance is the F10’s pace.
Prisoner Monkeys
7th June 2010, 10:24
I don’t think Felipe is going to be making friends with Webber any time soon given those comments.
Is it just me, or has Massa experienced something of a personality change since his accident? I don’t know, but just can’t see the old Massa saying things like that.
OEL
7th June 2010, 10:32
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that comment. It’s just an example of the fact that people change their minds quickly, which is true. “The fact is there are lots of drivers who are capable of winning the championship.” I guess that includes Webber.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
7th June 2010, 10:44
Actually I read that as Massa having a go at journalists rather than Webber!
Kav
7th June 2010, 11:35
He wasn’t bashing Webber, he was just pointing out how the majority of fans and the media are fickle. Webber himself said roughly the same thing.
“You are as good as your last race”. Unfortunately this never works for Massa!
Scribe
7th June 2010, 12:03
No what you mean actually PM, he does seem a little bit more agressive and dismissive. Mind you watched an interveiw of him talking about Hamilton’s penalty in Spa08 at the next race, an he seemed intent on claiming the race as his victory through his brilliant driving.
Still here he has a point, media are fickle, but he wasn’t very nice about it.
steph
7th June 2010, 12:10
Maybe he is a little different. It wouldn’t be surprising but I think he’s pretty much the same really. He at times has always said things a bit…more harder perhaps.
Talking about the Spa penalty (obviously I’m biased here and I can’t remember the quotes exactly but it’s on the review DVD) I think he just insisted that what Ham did was wrong. Probably just trying to defend the points he got in the midst of the title race, I like to think he genuinely believed it was wrong of Ham but I’m not a mind reader or quite that naive to say “for sure” :P. I don’t think Massa could argue his driving that day was the best in the world because it just wasn’t. He was annonmyous the entire time but he didn’t make a mistake I guess so whoever wins deserves it. Still a sensitive issue though on all sides even after this amount of time.
Electrolite
7th June 2010, 18:50
Yeah, I think it was a dig at the journalists, but perhaps worded it a bit funny. I’m not sure how good his english is! Webber obviously had a lot of support, but people questioned his place in RBR after this year and were then proven wrong, which is what he would of meant.
matt90
7th June 2010, 12:43
He’s got no excuses now then. If he doesn’t continue performing well against Alonso from this point, I think we’ll see Kubica in his place next year. Or maybe they’ll even take a gamble on a younger talent like Petrov, as they did with Massa in 06.
Patrickl
7th June 2010, 15:17
Be sure that the tyre problems will be “back” if Alonso manages to get in front of him though.
Massa has always been a bit of a self centered nub.
https://www.racefans.net/2008/01/28/the-massa-delusion/
He does this all the time. When he wins, he beats only himself on the chest. When he doesn’t, he blames everybody but himself.
I guess all drivers do that to some extent, but with Massa it’s really extremely obvious.
sumedh
7th June 2010, 19:34
His comments about the fickle media are true though.
For some people Massa will always be defined by Silverstone 2008. For others, it will always be by Hungary 2008.
The dictum ‘You are as good as your last race’ is good in theory, but rarely applied in practice
Johnny86
8th June 2010, 4:26
I think the rumour surrounding “ferrari working on a b-spec car “that surfaced around february was true.they are probably designing and developing that car rather then the present one.maybe the introduction of f-duct may have delayed this car which they say will be ready by the valencia gp..i dont have any facts to support it.just my thought