Felipe Massa’s downfall handicaps Ferrari

Felipe Massa has always been considered a good driver never a great one, yet his recent endeavours have been hurting his stature in the sport.

The Brazilian worked hard from the outset to get into Formula 1 and has done well relative to the talent he possessed. He was always considered to be good but in the earlier stages of his career it was unclear how good he was.

Massa true potential came to shine once he partnered up with Michael Schumacher by joining Ferrari in 2006. The Brazilian really showed that he had it in him to be in the sport. The highest point of his career came in the year 2008 when was in the mix for the title. The Brazilian went into the final race of the 2008 season with a serious chance of winning the title.

The race was in front of his home crowd in Brazil and he did not do anything wrong in the race and went on to win it. Lewis Hamilton required a sixth place finish in the race to beat Massa for the championship and it looked clear that he was going to finish below but in a controversial turn of events the sixth placed Timo Glock and a good friend of Hamilton stopped his car in the final lap giving Hamilton the position he needed to take the championship by one point.

It was heartbreak for Massa as it was a once in a lifetime chance for the Brazilian to win the Championship. In 2009, Massa got into a freak crash which ended his season. The Brazilian returned in 2010 but has since not been the same driver he was prior to the accident.

The fall of Massa has been a worry for Ferrari and they backed their driver for almost two years. Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo said that Massa needed to perform in the season to save his race seat. Massa was clearly in pressure to perform but the Brazilian has thus far not been able to show results of any improvement in his form.

Massa was first hampered by a poor Ferrari car earlier in the 2012 season yet his teammate Fernando Alonso drove the same car to a Grand Prix win in Malaysia. Massa however was not able to get into grips with the car. Ferrari though introduced several update packages for the car that improved the performance of the car considerably.

Massa however was still not able to improve his performances and it became clearer that the team will now look to replace him for 2013. Massa believes that he still has a chance if he can come up with good performances he might be able to save his race seat with the team.

It is unlikely though that he will be able to retain his race seat. Massa’s future looms over his head as leaving Ferrari will mean he might not be able to get a competitive race seat for 2013 and the Brazilian has already said that if he does not get a competitive race seat his Formula 1 career might end.

It will be interesting to see how Massa’s career progresses towards the end of the season and beyond it. One thing is certain the only way Massa can save his race seat is by winning races as difficult as it sounds that will be the only way for him.

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Posted by Kashif Khan on Aug 5 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.