Felipe Massa

Brilliant driver on his day but is he championship material?

In 2008 he proved he was but thats only one occassion, plus that season the Ferrari TBH was a bit quicker and won more races that season. In 2009 he nearly suffered a career ending head-injury and since coming to back to the grid he hasn't really shown that promise he did in 2008.

Don't get me wrong he's a driver i very much like, but i do wonder if he'll be a title challenger again for Ferrari season in season out or if he'll stay at Ferrari much longer?

Whats your thoughts on Massa?

 

[F1Brits_90]

Ive been expecting news of his retirement since Britain. His career is probably in 2 parts because pre accident great driver really hit his peak 07/08 but post accident he still had it but only in flashes like Germany 2010, Austria 2014 & GB 2015 was beaten consistently by Alonso & Bottas

But i have Huge respect for Felipe Massa after brazil 08 obviously he was the villian to me as i wanted lewis to win. But i appreciated it when they stopped being rivals because Taking defeat with such grace while dieing inside. in front of 80,000 of his home fans. I genuinely cant remember a sportsman who had such disappointment & in such a low moment but took defeat with such grace. Because i know from my personal life. Like when Sheffield United have lost in final seconds of a game. I just to leave as fast as possible & be on my own.

 

[gethinceri]

I like him. I wish him the best for the future, he made his mark in F1.

 

[Olivier]

I'm really gutted but I understand this is probably the best decision he could have taken. He's given everything to the sport and now he's ready to retire. Always well liked, the epitome of "Nice Guy", a really good test driver and overall competent driver. Him losing the 2008 WDC was probably the most disappointing event I have ever experienced as a F1 follower. Always a fan of his, I remember like it was yesterday when he had his accident. Just to be able to return from that is for me enough prove he's a fine athlete. His years alongside Alonso were really though. The Spaniard out-psyching him from the beginning didn't help, but if we were to compare Alonso's performance against Raikkonen, it turns out Massa fared Ok. His transfer to Williams was received like a fresh start and even though Bottas has usually had the edge, he has never convincingly beaten the Brazilian. I bid him farewell and hope he returns to motorsport racing soon. Au Revoir Felipe!

 

[Mezzer]

I wish him well, although he was never one of my favourites. One thing about him that irritated me was he was one of those drivers who was never the cause of an incident, it was always the other guy. Sometimes you have to put your big boy pants on and admit it was your mistake.

 

[Bill Boddy]

Massa started out with the perceived view that he was very fast and just as wild. He also had a sort of drawback in that his manager was the son of Jean Todt (remember him?) and many thought that was the only reason he was in F1. I would never have put him in the top layer of drivers but on his day he would get very close to the best.

 

[RasputinLives]

He used to absolutely dominate in Turkey. He was the master of that circuit.

 

[vintly]

Thoroughly nice man, talented driver, bored me to tears.

 

[Spinodontosaurus]

He used to absolutely dominate in Turkey. He was the master of that circuit.

Massa beat his team mate 5 times out of 7 in both the race and qualifying at Turkey.
In qualifying the only times he was beaten were 2009 (Raikkonen) and 2011 (Alonso). In races he only failed to beat his team mate in 2005 (Villenueve) and 2011 (Alonso), but you can't really count 2005 because Massa retired with engine failure after having qualified 8 positions ahead. Definitely one of the most blatant examples of a driver having a track they are extra good at I can think of.

 

[Greenlantern101]

He was an excellent driver before his accident. I don't think he was ever in the top echelons, but he was bloody close. Given the right car like many other world champions he would of done enough to take the world title. After the accident he was a different man. After the first season I would of fired him. Rather amazing he has lasted so long.

 

[Spinodontosaurus]

I'm not actually convinced he was any worse after his accident than before it. People always point to 2008 and 2009 as the baseline for his pre-crash form, but those were his two best seasons by a country mile. Take a look at this graph, which was made by the guy who runs the F1Metrics blog. It is how his model rates each individual season of Massa, Raikkonen and Button, using data up to "early 2015" (so it is a little out of date, but is sufficient for my point).
Massa's average form from 2002-2007 is rated almost identically to his 2010-2015 form. It is only in 2008 and 2009 that he performed significantly above that level.

For context, the ppr values in that graph are ~0.4 higher across the board than they were at the end of 2015. This is because the ratings are generated based on a reference car, and the model changes it's perception of that car's performance as more data is added (the ref. car is the Red Bull RB9). If we subtract ~0.4 off all of Massa's ratings from that graph we can then compare them to the 2015 end-season rankings.

• 2008 (7.25) and 2009 (7.06) fit into the gap between the 2015 ratings of Button (7.39; 4th) and Nasr (6.98; 5th).

• 2002 (6.21) and 2005 (6.18) are rated fractionally better than 2015 Bottas (6.14; 9th), but worse than Ricciardo (6.72; 8th).

• 2010, 2012 and 2013 all fit in the close midfield grouping stretching between Bottas (9th) and Massa's own 2015 season (5.75; 13th). This group also includes Grosjean, Perez and Raikkonen.

• 2011, 2007, 2014 and 2004 fall into the gap between 2015 Massa (13th) and Ericsson (5.28; 14th).

• 2006, 5.27, is rated as Massa's worst season and is comparable to 2015 Ericsson (14th).

• 2002-2007 and 2010-2015 both average out to 5.72, fractionally lower than Massa's own 2015 season.

Note that the amount that the ratings have decreased between when he made the graph and posted the article are only approximately 0.4; it isn't exactly 0.4 and each individual season will change by slightly different amounts. But the figures will be close enough for general observations.
We can see that in 2008 and 2009, Massa performed very well and joined the level just below the very top drivers, which is what I refer to as "Button-level". However, across the rest of his career he has floated around in the midfield, usually in the mid-to-lower regions of it but occasionally towards the front of it (2002, 2005).

 

[Mezzer]

Part of his downfall on his return was being paired with Alonso, who totally dominated him, as demonstrated by brushing him aside at the entrance to the pits in China.

 

[Greenlantern101]

Moving send off for Massa today. Well loved character.

 

[RasputinLives]

Hands up who shed a tear at Massa's guard of honour? never seen anything like that in F1 ever.

 

[teabagyokel]

He's daft for still doing Abu Dhabi after that!

 

[gethinceri]

Spontaneity is of much greater value than any contrived bollocks that we'll see at Aberdovey. No doubt Bernie's got something lame planned.

 

[Greenlantern101]

teabagyokel 250th grand prix at Abu Dhabi though. Nice round number.

 

[teabagyokel]

Fair enough then.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Sorry Felipe, Fernando is more current than you.

Bon voyage

 

[FB]

Can we get an "over ripe" prefix for drivers that hang on just that bit too long? My first nomination for this is Kimi Raikkonen.

 

[teabagyokel]

Can it also be applied to drivers who pointlessly pootle around the midfield because they can't get a decent contract, even if the evidence suggests they're still quite good?

If so, Alonso.