Are the Rumors Surrounding Massa Justified?

There are a lot of rumors swirling around Felipe Massa and his contract with Ferrari. Currently Massa is under contract with Ferrari until the end of 2010, but rumors say this is a bit of a question considering his poor start with no points.

Talk is weather Massa will be with Ferrari in 2009. This is of course because he has failed to finish in both Australia and Malaysia and is at the bottom of the driver points standings, 14 points behind Lewis Hamilton. Possible replacements for Felipe Massa at Ferrari are Sebastien Vettel and of course Fernando Alonso and in his style, Alonso when asked has jumped all over these rumors.

First let’s look at Massa’s short career with Ferrari which started in 2006 along side Michael Schumacher.

In the first race of the season in Bahrain, Massa qualified 2nd, but in Saturday practice Massa spun out. In the race, he again spun out and just missed Fernando Alonso. In Malaysia Massa came from 21st to 5th.
In Australia, he crashed his Ferrari in qualifying and then in the race he crashed into Christian Klien and Nico Rosberg in turn one.
Things started looking up after this and at the Nurburgring, Massa finished 3rd behind Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso.
Along with a bunch of podiums, Massa won in Turkey and his home race, the Brazilian Grand Prix.
His final tally of the season, 3 poles, and 2 wins with 80 points.

In 2007 at the Australian Grand Prix, he had gearbox problems in qualifying and needed an engine change. He ended up starting from pit lane. After a one stop race, he ended up in 6th place.
In Malaysia he qualified on pole, but in the race, he over cooked it when trying to pass Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton and ran off the track. He did recover in 5th and finished the race in 5th.
From there, Massa got it together and won the Bahrain Grand Prix and the Spanish Grand Prix, both of them from pole position.

So now we are in 2008. In Australia, Massa qualified 4th, but disaster struck not just him, but Kimi Raikkonen as well. Massa crashed twice in that race and did not finish.
In Malaysia, he grabbed pole with half a second to spare over Raikkonen, but on lap 26 he lost the car and beached in the gravel trap, again failing to finish the race and getting no points.

There certainly are similarities between this season and the previous 2 seasons. In 2006 and 2007, Massa got it together and went on to have good seasons finishing 3rd and 4th in the drivers standings. Given that in those seasons and now in this season, he has started badly and finished pretty good, what are all the rumors about?

And of course, someone has to jump in on the rumors and who better than Fernando Alonso. Always looking to stir up something, he says this:

“I always try to be in the best car. I’m at Renault now because I wanted to go back to winning, like in 2005 and 2006. If not this year, then next year.

“But I have an option to leave so I can still be in the best possible car, and it is clear that Ferrari’s is one of the best.”

I look for Felipe Massa to get himself together once again and have a good season with Ferrari, and maybe beyond.

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Technorati Tags: Felipe Massa, Ferrari, Australia, Malaysia, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastien Vettel, Fernando Alonso, Michael Schumacher, Christian Klien, Nico Rosberg, Brazilian Grand Prix, Australian Grand Prix, Bahrain Grand Prix, Spanish Grand Prix, Kimi Raikkonen

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