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[darwin dali]

Oh my God. You lot are perving over an elephant.

I knew you were depraved, but this is rock bottom.

I'm shocked

At?

At the level of depravity. It's nowhere near where it should be, so if this is rock bottom, I don't have much hope for you lot

[LewEngBridewell]

Have you ever woundered what would happen if you mix human and elephant DNA?

The human would have a huge trunk.

[darwin dali]

ESPNF1:

"I am delighted with this agreement," Massa said. "Ferrari is my sports family and I have always raced in Formula One driving engines built at Maranello: I can't see myself behind the wheel of a car driven by any other units! First I want to thank the President Montezemolo and Stefano Domenicali, who gave me confidence and I have always maintained belief, even in the most difficult moments. Both the team and the fans can be assured that I will do all that is in my power to help the Scuderia to achieve the goals that arise every year."




I'm taking bets: FM if he continues to drive in F1 in 2014, will do so in a Sauber, his 'other' sports family.

[Jabberwocky]

ESPNF1:

"I am delighted with this agreement," Massa said. "Ferrari is my sports family and I have always raced in Formula One driving engines built at Maranello: I can't see myself behind the wheel of a car driven by any other units! First I want to thank the President Montezemolo and Stefano Domenicali, who gave me confidence and I have always maintained belief, even in the most difficult moments. Both the team and the fans can be assured that I will do all that is in my power to help the Scuderia to achieve the goals that arise every year."




I'm taking bets: FM if he continues to drive in F1 in 2014, will do so in a Sauber, his 'other' sports family.

Or Toro Rosso

[darwin dali]

ESPNF1:

"I am delighted with this agreement," Massa said. "Ferrari is my sports family and I have always raced in Formula One driving engines built at Maranello: I can't see myself behind the wheel of a car driven by any other units! First I want to thank the President Montezemolo and Stefano Domenicali, who gave me confidence and I have always maintained belief, even in the most difficult moments. Both the team and the fans can be assured that I will do all that is in my power to help the Scuderia to achieve the goals that arise every year."




I'm taking bets: FM if he continues to drive in F1 in 2014, will do so in a Sauber, his 'other' sports family.

Or Toro Rosso

Nah.

[spankyham]

Okay... let's at the very least congratulate Massa for getting a contract extension. He's genuinely turned his season around, and I'm looking forward to his continued resurgence.

Spanky... what if next year's Massa shows up and manages to beat Alonso and be slotted as the number one driver at Ferrari? I'd just like to see Alonso being told to move out of the way for Felipe... for no other reason that it would be proof positive that the tifosi actually were founded in their beliefs.

Now wouldn't that be grand for all Tifosi No-one would be happier than me if Felipe was able to continue his resurgence and best Nando next year. You ask what-if? Well, IMO that's about the only way I see Seb not join SF.

[bud]

To mark this agreement there were no signatures but Monte branded Massa's butt with the Roman numeral II

[1Lemon]

Okay... let's at the very least congratulate Massa for getting a contract extension. He's genuinely turned his season around, and I'm looking forward to his continued resurgence.

Spanky... what if next year's Massa shows up and manages to beat Alonso and be slotted as the number one driver at Ferrari? I'd just like to see Alonso being told to move out of the way for Felipe... for no other reason that it would be proof positive that the tifosi actually were founded in their beliefs.

Now wouldn't that be grand for all Tifosi No-one would be happier than me if Felipe was able to continue his resurgence and best Nando next year. You ask what-if? Well, IMO that's about the only way I see Seb not join SF.

Could you imagine the upset it would create in Ferrari if Massa just creams Alonso next year?

[Denthúl]

I thought this was interesting. The Sky website is awful though.

In Korea on Sunday Felipe Massa had to be called off from crowding his Ferrari team-mate Fernando Alonso. It probably took all of his engineer Rob Smedley's restraint not to say, 'Fernando is slower than you' in an exact reversal of his infamous Hockenheim 2010 message. It was the confirmation of the apparent return to form of a driver who has struggled in the last three seasons since his comeback from serious injury in Hungary 2009.

In the last two races Massa has at last looked like the driver of 2007-09 - quick, composed and error-free. It's been a long time coming, but it really does appear as if a corner had been turned, a breakthrough in confidence made. It has made his re-signing for Ferrari for an eighth consecutive season an easier decision for the team than it would otherwise have been.

The driver that almost took the 2008 world championship was capable of extracting the maximum from the car in qualifying and had a spiralling confidence that allowed him to make great moves in the race - such as his pass around the outside of Lewis Hamilton to take the lead in the opening seconds of that year's Hungarian race. His style was very late on the brakes and a great way of maintaining a lot of momentum into a corner even with an understeering car. He didn't fight it, could go with it, and adapt himself accordingly. He was feisty in battle and reliably quick - a terrific little driver.

Then came that horrible accident, where a spring from another car was lodged in his skull just above his eye. His three seasons since then have been poor. Although he was on the front row in his comeback race of Bahrain 2010, the race performances lacked consistency; the speed was evident only sporadically. Just underlining that in red was the team-mate he has faced since his comeback - the formidable Alonso, a solid-gold airtight all-time great that the team had identified as their talisman, the man who would inspire the whole enterprise.

It's impossible to identify which hurt Massa's form more - the after effects of the injury or the psychological drubbing from Alonso and his relationship with the team, as epitomised in that Hockenheim team order instruction. The after-effects of even small brain injuries - and there was a small degree of brain tissue damage - are notoriously unpredictable. Typical symptoms include difficulties with concentration and judgement. But often these are not long term and the skills that were there before can be re-learned. New parts of the brain have to be re-trained to do what other parts were previously doing, damaged neurons with specific learned skills imprinted upon them are replaced by blank ones. It's more than conceivable that this process could have taken three years and it's taken this long to re-acquire the fine detail of his former skill set.

On the other hand, confidence can be a huge part of a driver's speed and it could be that physically he's unchanged. After a sporadically promising late-2011 - there was a period between Hungary and Korea where he out-qualified Alonso four times in six races - his 2012 season started disastrously. The nadir came in Malaysia where a sequence of errors left him finishing 15th in the same car with which Alonso had won the race.

Smedley - who has worked with Massa since mid-2006 - talks of the disaster of that race forming the basis of a recovery that has taken this long to come to fruition. "We had a long talk after that," he says, "and analysed the disaster of that race. Once you looked in detail at it, it was a series of moments of madness, not a lack of basic speed. We had to rebuild from there, we spent a lot of time in the simulator in the following days doing that Malaysia race again, in effect. But it takes time. You work on one weakness for two or three races before the solution becomes automatic, then another becomes apparent and you work on that. I think a lot of it was him understanding and accepting where he was as a racing driver and attending to weaknesses as opposed to thinking 'it's not fair.'"

Massa himself said in Korea: "My feel for the car is now automatic again and I can be happy once more. Even though it's the best job in the world, I've not been happy in the car, but now it's turned around. I still know how to be quick, and still know how to work with the car." That realisation is playing its part in the return to form.

It's not as though he has suddenly become a faster driver than Alonso. The traits of Alonso's driving style means that he can overwork the outside front tyre if it is at all marginal - which it was in Korea - whereas Massa's natural style can keep it alive longer. But previously he would have been too far behind for that to have been apparent. Even in Suzuka and Korea Massa still had problems in qualifying - front tyres that refused to come up to temperature in Suzuka, a scrappy Q3 lap in Yeongam - but this time they had little impact upon his confidence, were batted away as circumstantial and in both races he looked like the Massa of old.

It's early days yet, and no-one is seriously expecting Massa to challenge Alonso for the leadership of the team. But the Felipe Massa we've seen in the last two races can comfortably justify his inclusion in the team, something that could not have been said of his season up to that point.

MH

[bud]

Interesting read

[Denthúl]

Indeed. Hopefully he will be strong from now on. It would be nice to see him on the podium regularly and winning some more races. 11 is such a low number...

[racechick]

I'm really pleased to see Massa come back to form. and even more impressed with the skills of Smedly and his patience in helping him. What a guy!!

[LewEngBridewell]

Might we see a return to the pre-crash Massa? It seems to be heading that way.

[vlad]

It was about time to see competitive Massa. Let's hope it stays that way.

[LiamCatterson]

ESPNF1:

"I am delighted with this agreement," Massa said. "Ferrari is my sports family and I have always raced in Formula One driving engines built at Maranello: I can't see myself behind the wheel of a car driven by any other units! First I want to thank the President Montezemolo and Stefano Domenicali, who gave me confidence and I have always maintained belief, even in the most difficult moments. Both the team and the fans can be assured that I will do all that is in my power to help the Scuderia to achieve the goals that arise every year."




I'm taking bets: FM if he continues to drive in F1 in 2014, will do so in a Sauber, his 'other' sports family.

I doubt Massa will stay on to Ferrari for 2014. Unless Red Bull do keep Vettel for 2014, because we know that Christian Horner won't have Vettel leaving the team. That being said, if Lewis can go to Mercedes, why not Seb?