Felipe Massa’s poor form over the previous two years isn’t a result of his accident in Hungary 2009, but a change of climate within the Ferrari team.
Up until that terrible accident Massa was a driver who was coming of age and thriving on confidence. Since his return he hasn’t been anywhere near the driver, a man, who for 20 seconds was the 2008 world champion.
Much of that is down to the arrival of Fernando Alonso, and how the team has revolved around him to the Brazilian’s detriment. The team is no longer an environment that Massa is able to thrive in, as was the case before his accident.
Felipe can be quite a complicated and emotional character. In order to get the most out of him, Massa needs encouragement and to feel loved. We have heard on his team radio how he can become flustered and his race engineer Rob Smedley has to keep him calm and relaxed.
Massa’s former team boss, Peter Sauber, once said that sometimes the Brazilian is a driver that just needs a cuddle.
In 2008 alongside Kimi Raikkonen, Massa became the number one driver within the team. The problem for the Finn was that he didn’t spend enough time with the engineers working on the car.
Furthermore, a driver of Raikkonen’s attitude and personality simply just didn’t fit into the family culture that exists within the Ferrari team.
It was joked that in the first two weeks after Alonso joined Ferrari, he spent more time at the Ferrari factory, than Kimi did in his whole three year stint with the team.
Due to this the development of the F2008 went in Felipe’s direction and suited his driving style, which was at the opposite end of the spectrum to Kimi’s.
The Finn is like Lewis Hamilton in that he prefers oversteer. This is exactly what he had at McLaren where he thrived as a driver. Massa is the complete opposite in that he loves a car with understeer.
The 2007 world champion hates a car with understeer, so once the F2008 went in this direction, Massa had a big advantage over him. Once Massa became the driver most likely to win the driver’s title the team got right behind him, and supported his bid. As a result Raikkonen lost his motivation and faded into the background within the team.
The other big factor in Felipe’s strong form in this period was a certain seven times world champion. When Massa joined Ferrari as Michael Schumacher’s team mate in 2006 they became very close.
With Schumacher’s help and advice he became a much improved driver. At the start of 2006 Felipe was still very wild and ragged, as he was throughout his Sauber days.
In the second half of the season, the improvement was there for all to see, and the Brazilian won the first two races of his career in Turkey and Brazil respectively.
On driving alongside Schumacher Massa says: “It was extremely important to me to be his teammate – it helped me to grow, to learn, to reach a higher level as a driver.”
Even though Schumacher retired he still remained a loyal consultant to Ferrari. It was then when Massa benefited most from the German. They would speak on the phone together on a regular basis. Massa was always happy to accept his help during a race weekend.
In 2011 it’s all very different. The Ferrari team is now completely revolved around Alonso. He is the dominant figure within the team.
Massa doesn’t have the same level of support from the squad as he had back in 2008. It’s very much him and race engineer Smedley against the world.
Alonso is the leader of the team. He performs at his best when he is the clear number one within the team. In turn Ferrari appears to perform better when they have a star driver leading the team.
They know they need a driver of Fernando’s ability if they are to keep competing at the sharp end of the grid, so keeping him content is a must.
Alonso very much drives the development of the car. Any upgrades that are made for the car are always going to be designed with the Spaniard in mind.
A further blow is that Felipe’s close friend, Schumacher, is now back racing. Now that they are rivals in different teams, it’s hard to imagine Michael still phoning Felipe every week giving him tips on how to drive quicker.
It’s also very clear that the F150º Italia isn’t suited to Felipe. The car lacks downforce, which means it’s difficult to get heat into the tyres, particularly the harder compound tyres.
This is something that Massa has struggled with since his injury. The characteristics of the present Ferrari make that issue even worse still.
Alonso is better at getting heat into his tyres, but even he has struggled with the hard tyre this year. The Spanish GP was one of the best examples. Fernando lost a bucket load of time on the hard tyres after initially leading the race. Therefore you can imagine how hard it has been for Massa.
A great driver doesn’t become an average driver over night. There is no doubt that the ability is still there. We have seen a few little glimpses of this ability and speed in 2011. Massa out-raced Alonso in China and has out-qualified Alonso four times this year.
However because Ferrari are so focussed on Alonso they are not unlocking Massa’s full potential, and his confidence is diminishing as a result. The team orders deployed last year in Germany (and it’s feasible there have been other cases since, e.g Japan) has dented this further.
Even if the climate within Ferrari suited Massa better, chances are Alonso would still be ahead of his team mate.
After all Alonso is the driver who is still considered the best in the field. Chances are only a couple of drivers could cope with him as a teammate. There is no shame in being inferior to a driver as strong as the two time world champion.
Even so, with more support from the team, Massa could certainly be closer to Alonso, and therefore contribute more points towards the constructor’s title.
It would perhaps be fair to say that Alonso is currently overperforming and Massa is underperforming. Another theory maybe is that in 2008 Raikkonen’s lack of form made Felipe look a better driver than he is in reality.
You have to wonder whether Massa would be better off with a new challenge with a different team, away from the Alonso centred Italian outfit.
Massa has to ask himself whether he will ever be able to regularly win races again, with the Spaniard as his team mate.
There is no doubt that he needs to make a change to revive his career, and bring back the spark he had before his accident. There is also no doubt that there is still a very fast driver within himself.
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