Rate this article:
Greenlight Andretti Green Danica Patrick 1st Win 2008
This is a replica of the racecar used during the 2008 Japan race in which she won her first race ever!
Our Price: 1/18th Scale - $45.95 ($41.36 Member)
Ducati Red Team Logo Hat
100% cotton. Embroidered. Adjustable strap.
Our Price: $36.00 ($32.40 Member)
Formula 1 2009 Calendar
Every month is accompanied by a superb action shot from the 2008 season, with essential information about the sport.
Our Price: $16.95 ($15.26 Member)
Written by:
Peter Windsor
http://www.f1racing.co.uk
03/20/2007 - 07:00 PM
Melbourne, Australia
Felipe Massa (LAT photo) » More Photos
Kimi Raikkonen may have drawn first blood for Ferrari at the Australian Grand Prix last weekend, but don't take his teammate lightly, cautions SPEED Channel pit reporter Peter Windsor in this story abridged from an article in the February issue of F1 Racing magazine. -Ed.
How will Felipe Massa fare at Scuderia Ferrari in 2007? The question, of course, has several layers. Can Felipe win the championship? Can he win more races? Can he out-score Kimi Raikkonen? Will he beat Kimi at all ? either in qualifying or race conditions?
A fair majority of F1 people, I think, believe that Kimi will blow Felipe away. Quite a few McLaren people think we've yet to see the best of Raikkonen and that he will touch even higher skies in 2007. In the sense that Kimi was very frustrated at McLaren ? frustrated by poor reliability in 2005 and by inadequate car performance in 2006 ? these people are probably right. Raikkonen will indeed be different at Ferrari. The car will most likely be rock-solid reliable; it will almost certainly be very competitive at every race; and Kimi will also love the "foreign-ness" of the place. While they have their meetings and their conferences, mainly in Italian, Kimi will switch off and just drive. And so, yes, Kimi will be happy at Ferrari.
None of this means that he'll thrash Massa, however ? mainly because Felipe isn't your average Brazilian nutcase who is quick in a quick car but who will lie down and die once The Superstar does his thing. Felipe isn't that driver at all. He's a very different animal? and his character suggests that there are several good reasons why he'll continue to perform at Ferrari ? even with Kimi as a teammate. More important than any of those, however, is the essence of Felipe himself: he is strong ? very strong. He is self-disciplined, spiritually robust, self-contained, extremely organized, close to his family and accurately self-critical. Everything about him is neat and tidy. He dresses down, not up. He avoids cynicism and third-party judgment. He has learned from the Todts (Jean and his manager, Nicolas) and has learned from Michael Schumacher. He knows how not to believe the hype. He knows how to separate the important from the less important. He has known, probably since Canada 2005, what he needs in order to be quick.
Having learned from the master, Massa is ready to up his game in 2007. (LAT photo) » More Photos
That 2005 season was his coming-of-age. The Brazilian kid with two black labradors back in Sao Paulo, the loner who chose to flat quietly in Switzerland rather than in the synthetic glitz of Monaco ? the prodigy who for many was a Latino Takuma Sato ? this guy was a different driver in 2005. He had done his "I am mega-quick" thing; he had shunted a few Saubers. He had tested, too, for Ferrari, with the pressure off and the odometer spinning about as fast as the rear Bridgestones in the wet at Fiorano.
The naturally reactive driver expanded a variety of run-off areas that testing year at Ferrari, and concluded at the end of the year, and relatively simply, that there was an easier, more consistent, Michael-like, way of going about his racing. He began to think about dynamic mass management as much as he continued to think about strategies for starts, places to pass, bumps to avoid and pit stops to perfect. He began to free-up some mental space for thought and thus rely less upon reflexes and bravery.
The results weren't instantaneous, but he didn't read his press and he didn't question his progress. He just drove within his new, fixed framework. It was a bit like a successful pro golfer deconstructing his swing before rebuilding it for a new, more repeatable, less destructive set of muscle patterns.
And then, going into the final phase of the 2005 Canadian Grand Prix, he found himself ahead of Mark Webber's quick Williams-BMW. The smart pit-lane money was on Felipe locking-up into the hairpin or clipping the wall by the startline chicane. The smart money was on Webber making the pass. This was the quick, wild, Brazilian, remember? His Sauber-Petronas wasn't, on that day, a match for the Williams.
As good as Webber was, Felipe took it all. He finished a great fourth. It was the best drive of his career to date. After that, winning with a fantastic Ferrari in Turkey 2006 would be a breeze.
Of course, Massa is by no means the perfect racing driver ? nor is he in the same class as Raikkonen right now. Based on what has transpired already, however, and on his outstanding ability to be self-critical, we can assume he'll be content also to learn from Kimi. If he can do that, then we genuinely will have a new title contender on our hands.
Learn what? Felipe's weak point in 2006 was still his propensity under pressure to brake and accelerate too abruptly for the lateral mass the car was carrying. This he did under braking in Bahrain, when he lost
And this he will do, I think. Rubens Barrichello bristled when Schumacher was quick with a setup that he, Rubens, couldn't use. And Juan Pablo Montoya not once was prepared to admit that Raikkonen was doing a better job with the McLaren; from Juan's viewpoint, the team needed to make the car more palatable for him. Felipe, though, is different: he will learn from Kimi and will benefit from Kimi's presence, I think. A lesser driver would see Raikkonen as a threat and ultimately would switch teams in order to be "No. 1" or some other such rubbish. Felipe will continue to flourish.
There are plenty of other reasons, too, why things should sweep along quite nicely for the man who won twice (with Michael Schumacher as a teammate) in 2006. In no particular order, they are:
(1) He speaks perfect English and Italian ? Ferrari's two main languages; Raikkonen speaks no Italian and isn't very comfortable in English.
(2) Felipe knows the Ferrari system: he knows the mechanics. Their families. The logistics. The things it's worth spending time on and the things it isn't; Kimi knows the McLaren way? a more clinical environment.
(3) Felipe has also learned Michael's management system ? how to train, for example, and how to think about the race ahead; and how to work with the people around you. Michael, of course, isn't a bad example to follow in these instances; Raikkonen, by contast, has only his system. He learns from no one; he is self-made, self-taught.
(4) No one will admit it but it's true: if Michael Schumacher wants any Ferrari driver to win in 2007 it will be Felipe Massa. Felipe is a sort of prot駩; Raikkonen is the guy who has taken Michael's place. That means nothing now, but could be significant as the season heats up.
(5) Felipe knows the full spread of Bridgestone tires ? right back to the YO construction of 2005 (and thus the probable race structure for 2007); Kimi does not. By the season's start he will of course have a reasonable amount of Bridgestone mileage beneath him, but it will be nothing compared with Massa's database.
(6) The Ferrari team will be very different in 2007. No Ross Brawn. No Michael. Felipe nonetheless has a feel for how Brawn thought and worked; ditto for Schumacher ? so he can use that experience to advantage. Raikkonen has no such grasp of either key person. That may be good in terms of starting afresh? but neither Ross nor Michael had obvious downsides. In that sense, Felipe has an additional benefit.
(7) Felipe has won two races, and thus has "his team" within the Ferrari team. People believe in him. People like him. And quite a few Ferrari people want him to win. For Felipe, this is much better than never having won and so having to run as a team-mate alongside such a proven winner as Kimi. OK, he could go off the rails. Massa could start believing the sycophants. He could begin to blame the team and the car when things aren't right. He could do many things. The signs over the past 24 months, however, are that he won't do any of that. Nicolas Todt, for sure, is a stabilizing influence ? and, like Felipe, low-key and industrious. And learning is exponential: the more you apply, the better the results.
Through hard work, self-criticism and maximizing his place in the ultimate F1 classroom ? beside Michael Schumacher ? Massa improved more as a driver during 2005 and 2006 than probably anyone else on the grid. For that learning curve now to flatten and perhaps even to dip, Felipe will have to wake up one morning a very different person.
Prediction? Massa will score more points than Raikkonen, in 2007 but will out-qualify him only about 45 percent of the time. Felipe can therefore definitely win the World Championship, but the deciding factors will be Kimi (and how many points the Ferrari drivers take from one another); Fernando Alonso and McLaren-Mercedes; and perhaps a few ring-ins ? the boys at Renault, for example, or some other wilder cards.
It won't be easy, and he needs to continue to improve, but, by this time next year, Felipe Massa can be World Champion.
Published monthly, F1 Racing is the world's biggest selling grand prix magazine.
Commenting is not allowed in this article.
- Press Releases | Advertising | Jobs | Feedback | FAQ | Terms & Conditions | Privacy | Site Map
Fox Sports | FUEL TV | FX Network | FOXReality | National Geographic | IGN | AskMen | BeliefNet -
The Online Motorsports Authority© Copyright 2008 Speed Channel, Inc. All Rights Reserved.