zyphro wrote:stefan_ wrote:Alonso is the only driver that can proper drive the F2012. 70% of the reasons that Massa has this disastrous results I think are car-related, not driver-related. But then again, maybe Felipe needs a change of scenery too.
I think Massa is still a good driver but, at Ferrari he seems demoralised. He needs the team around him to do well, IMO; something he won't get at Ferrari now.
The picture is quite unclear, I think. Alonso keeps talking about how they have out-performed tha car, even in the last race. On the one hand, this does say "look how well I've done here", which is understandable and I think we'd all agree with it, but it also points to the fact that the car may not have any business being where it is in the race. It may be that with Alonso's particular style - which I remember back at Renault being one that was aggresive rather than smooth - he has been able to adapt through testing to best fit the car and threfore he is the only one that can drag pace out of the car.
Massa seems to be perfectly capable of driving a well-balanced car - as soon as the car was fast at Hockenheim in 2010 he was on the pace, as well as the opener in Bahrain where he out-qualified Alonso. Those were the times that year when Ferrari arguably had the best car, and when they did, Massa was with Alonso pace-wise (the same way he was with MSC for the latter part of 2006, when the car was really good). What he can't do is drive around problems the way Alonso does and MSC used to do. But I'm not certain a Sutil or a Perez could either. My instinct is actually that the Sauber is a very good car and probably should be getting *better* results were either of the two drivers on a really top level. Controversial, I know.