Ferrari wants Massa to Win

[raindancer]

Kimi is unhappy and he proved it by setting the fastest lap of the race. He was extremely diplomatic when he mentioned his fuel loads during qualifying. Looks like MS is back to his games.

[Scott]

You think MS had anything to do with Ferrari's strategy?  You've gotta be kidding.

[Ian]

Surely wer'e not suggesting MS would favour Felipe are we ?

[Alianora La Canta]

You'd think if they were going to favour Felipe they'd give him an engine that can do all 70 laps...

[cosworth151]

You'd think if they were going to favour Felipe they'd give him an engine that can do all 70 laps...

They had planned to, but it was delayed in shipment to the Hungaroring from Cosworth.

[Alianora La Canta]

Nice one, cosworth151!

[raindancer]

Lets forget the MS part. But it looked to me that Ferrari got Kimi's strategy wrong. They loaded him with more fuel than Massa and he had to drive 50 laps behind Alonso and the moment he got clear, he showed what he could do. I am wondering what was the logic in that strategy. Or as usual is ferrari working as a team within a team.
Kimi said his qualifying wasn't good but still if he was fuelled right he might have won the race with those retirements.

[Steven Roy]

The fuel difference may not have been as much as it appeared to be.  Massa was caning his car to build a lead where Kimi was cruising behind Alonso and therefore using a lot less fuel.  It crossed my mind on a few occasions during the race that had Ross Brawn been in the pits he would have been organising an empty bit of road for Kimi rather than have him pound round behind Alonso all day.

The other thing to remember is Kimi was slow all weekend.  I think the only session he was faster than Massa was FP2 and by 0.001s.  So I am sure his speed at the end came as a surprise to the team as well as us.

[Chameleon]

In the race I saw, Kimi was not held up by Alonso - the gap was always much more than it would have been had Kimi been faster than the Renault.  So, either the Ferrari is super-sensitive to the wake of a car in front or it was no quicker than a Renault driven by a double world champion.  The plain fact is that Kimi's car was not handling as well as Massa's all weekend and I would suggest that the title of this thread may be closer to the truth than we imagine.

Kimi's speed in the final stint and his fastest lap was thanks to soft tyres and low fuel load - as it always is with him these days.

[SennaMan]

Perhaps the unthinkable has happened and FM has developed into a better driver in the dry if not the wet!

Shades of FA vs LH in McLAREN, somehow KM is not anywhere near his best self.

Getting hammered by FM would be hard on him and may simply be too much. Lets face it KR, judging by his public persona, is not the most endearing of fellows and indeed FERRARI as a team may have switched allegiance to MASSA especially as he is on very good terms with michael SCHUMACHER and as kimi has publicly rejected MS's help with an arrogant and very disrespectful disdain.

I do not think that was a good carer move and it may be coming back to haunt him as it shows a stupid lack of appreciation of a man who is revered by the team.

Anyway it is good to see some in the F1 world having to eat humble pie for consistently downrating felipe. He now has oodles of the drive and hunger for more success and getting mentored by MS has obviously worked some magic.

Now if only FERRARI can give FM a reliable car!

[SennaMan]

The fuel difference may not have been as much as it appeared to be.  Massa was caning his car to build a lead where Kimi was cruising behind Alonso and therefore using a lot less fuel.  It crossed my mind on a few occasions during the race that had Ross Brawn been in the pits he would have been organising an empty bit of road for Kimi rather than have him pound round behind Alonso all day.

The other thing to remember is Kimi was slow all weekend.  I think the only session he was faster than Massa was FP2 and by 0.001s.  So I am sure his speed at the end came as a surprise to the team as well as us.

a sage perception SR, at least RB would have given kimi a better chance. HONDA are b lucky to have him and getting ross has to be a very good move by them - and they need all the expertise they can get!   

[Scott]

Perhaps the unthinkable has happened and FM has developed into a better driver in the dry if not the wet!

Anyway it is good to see some in the F1 world having to eat humble pie for consistently downrating felipe. He now has oodles of the drive and hunger for more success and getting mentored by MS has obviously worked some magic.

Now if only FERRARI can give FM a reliable car!

How soon you forget he can't keep the car on the track in the wet.  I look at it the other way around - although he put it together in Hungary better than Ferrari provided him, but the high is more of a blip than typical.

[Steven Roy]

Massa has spun out of three separate races this season.  I can't think of anyone winning a world championship after making the number of basic drivig errors he has.  People seem to be writing Kimi off and I keep reading about what a terrible season he is having but he is only 5 points off the championship lead.  If Ferrari can sort out whatever is wrong with the front of their car or it is not as prevalent at the faster tracks that are coming up after Valencia the natural order at Ferrari will be restored.  By Moza we will know whether he is retiring or not and if he is not he will beat Massa in the championship again.

[Monty]

I have to agree with Steven.
Our sport seems to have lots of people (especially the ITV F1 presenters - excluding Brundle) that come up with stupid sensationalist statements
...Kimi is having a terrible season (well he still has a good chance of winning the championship, I bet the rest of the pack were wishing they could have such a terrible season)
....Massa has blown Hamilton away (mmm into a solid second place and holding a gap of less than 3seconds)
....Picquet simply doesn't have the pace (beats Alonso in one race and is just a few seconds behind in the next race)
etc., etc.

I'm no Ferrari fan but I have no doubt that they currently have an excellent car and employ two of the top five drivers in F1. Only a fool would ignore Kimi's chances to come out on top.

[John S]

Sure we can't write Kimi off, he is in with a chance of the WDC along with Lewis and Fellipe.

My worry is that Kimi relies to much on natural talent which is geared only to his motivation, where as Fellipe has to work his socks off to improve or even stay at the top.

In Hungary Massa kept building all weekend towards a big result that he nearly pulled off. Kimi on the other hand only seemed to show a spark when the big guns faltered in front of him making it worth his while to push on.

If I was a team boss I should be giving Massa every advantage in case Kimi can't keep his motivation going, you then stand a better than even chance of a Ferrari driver being WDC.