But at least he made the effort to fight back at the end when the safety car gave him a good opportunity to progess, Massa couldn't even catch, let alone pass the lowly Piquet, and he made it so easy for Hamilton to pass.
I can't believe people try to defend Massa, it's absolutely laughable.
My own opinion of Massa is that he is a nice guy and he has the right attitude, which is why he has improved his driving over the last couple of years. He does not, however, have the same God-given ability of other drivers on the grid. For example, he only performs well at certain tracks and the car is perfectly set up. I'm not sure that Massa could even work in a team with a one-two operation. In that case, you're looking for your number two driver to come second behind your main driver and be able to contribute towards the constructors' championship. Massa can't cut it a certain tracks, so is only a good number two driver at particular races throughout the year.
It never been tht good since they lost the J damper.
They're still using that piece of kit from McLaren.
It's the mass damper they badly miss.
Heck, even I would have went to the inside to defend.
I was surprised how slow Massa was at the end of the race. Hamilton would probably have got past at him at some stage because he was so much quicker, but you would have expected Massa to make it tricky for him. It looked like formation flying - between two different teams!
There's a lot of McLaren tracks coming up now, Hungary which is slow and very twisty, the new Valencia street circuit. Spa is a Ferrari circuit and Monza will probably favour McLaren's mechanical grip and ability to ride over the kerbs smoothly.
On the face of things, that's true. Both marques have built more balanced cars this season; McLaren have made headway around the faster circuits and Ferrari have improved their mechanical grip a little bit. In other words, McLaren running off victories in Hungary and Valencia is by no means a certainty, especially when you consider things like safety cars, which nearly wrecked McLaren's chances of winning today. McLaren have made a hell of a lot of headway on their aerodynamic grip, so a Ferrari victory at Spa isn't a cert either.
Massa does not let his qualifying brilliance playover into a race winning mentality.
What qualifying brilliance? Massa normally runs light on fuel in qualifying and tries to control the race like that. This weekend is probably the only exception to that.
Both drivers are capable of more. The car and the engineering team is capable of more. Something is wrong, and I'm wondering whether there are widespread motivation problems. Have they gone too conservative with their car and there isn't enough development left in it?
Don't be such a drama queen. Ferrari's situation is not as bad as that. The engineering team are good, as evidenced by the F2008 still being a competitive car, being the best car out of the box and some of the nifty engine work Ferrari did this year. I'll concede that Raikkonen and Massa could be doing more, but Hamilton and Kovalainen have had their fair share of screw-ups and bad luck. What is happening is that McLaren have got their house in order in the last couple of years. The annoying Newey is gone, the Technology Centre is finished, Mercedes have taken over Ilmor etc. Ferrari are seeing what it's like to be up against a team with the infrastructure and resources to win races and championships.
Ayrton Senna: WDC 1988,
1989, 1990, 1991
McLaren: WCC 1974, 1984, 1985, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1998,
1999, 2007McLaren: WDC 1974, 1976, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1998, 1999, 2008
