Is Massa No 1 at Ferrari now?

[WhiteBlue]

"If needed, Kimi will help Felipe - Domenicali"

This is suspiciously similar to "Let Michael pass for the Championship." I can imagine that Kimi has decided to quit F1 at the end of the year or will do so soon.

[Kester]

That's clearly been taken out of context. It doesn't mean he will, it just means that could be the case if Massa is the only one who could take the title, noted by the "If needed".

Basically it means if it's needed to make sure Ferrari win a title it'll happen. Not that it's going to happen no matter what from here out.

[WhiteBlue]

traditionally what is needed is decided by Ferrari. unless Kimi manages a huge turn around in attitude and performance the need could arise very soon. either Massa has improved dramatically over last season or Kimi has fallen off. there are rumors that he works a lot less than Massa. if that is true then talent alone will not be enough to secure the 2008 WDC in such a close run field. Massa is doing better for a third of the money they pay Kimi. montezemolo will not be pleased.

[andartop]

there were quite a few people writting off kimi from the WDC by this time last year as well..
on a lighter note it wouldn't seem strange to me if ferrari were actually backing felipe for the championship this year instead of kimi, in order to prove they can do it with both drivers. this would definitely boost scuderia's image in the post schumi era, and make lots of people think less of schumi and more of the team, wouldn't it?
anyway, i 'm with massa, of course kimi has had greater achievements in the past but this year he just seems bored to race, at least until the last 15 laps by which time it is already too late to fight for the win..

[DaveKillens]

Has the fire gone out in Kimi? Is he now content just to go through the motions, and amuse himself only by trying to set the fastest race lap? Personally, I believe so, and that makes any decision by Ferrari simple. With just six races to go, and with both the manufacturer's and driver's titles still up for grabs, it's time to get serious, and make that final push to the end. But remember, last year that's exactly what Kimi did.
Meanwhile, Massa is definitely in the hunt, and his personal performance is stellar. If not for a flawed con rod, he would be sitting on top of the pile, and looking dominant.
I believe that for the next two races, Kimi will be allowed to follow his own strategy. But when it gets down to the last four races, unless Kimi turns it around, he will be ordered to support Massa in his quest for the World Driving Championship.

[axle]

The full sentance quota was

"If needed, Kimi will help Felipe,"
"We spoke about it at the beginning of the year.
"Before then, however, let's see how things evolve."

It's obviously in response to calls for Massa to be made No.1 but it does not say he is.

[Ciro Pabón]

Of course Massa is number one at Ferrari. He soon will be number one at the WDC... Dave is always right, only misfortune can beat him (or perhaps Sebastian Vettel, but not right now). (Note for WB: this is just one of my incomprehensible jokes, who knows who will win? Not me. ).

[Conceptual]

Has the fire gone out in Kimi? Is he now content just to go through the motions, and amuse himself only by trying to set the fastest race lap? Personally, I believe so, and that makes any decision by Ferrari simple. With just six races to go, and with both the manufacturer's and driver's titles still up for grabs, it's time to get serious, and make that final push to the end. But remember, last year that's exactly what Kimi did.
Meanwhile, Massa is definitely in the hunt, and his personal performance is stellar. If not for a flawed con rod, he would be sitting on top of the pile, and looking dominant.
I believe that for the next two races, Kimi will be allowed to follow his own strategy. But when it gets down to the last four races, unless Kimi turns it around, he will be ordered to support Massa in his quest for the World Driving Championship.

The same could be said for Kimi's con rod failure, and lets not forget Hamilton's "moment" in Canada. Then there was the exhaust in France...

I don't see it as anything short of misfortune and bad calls by his team to not change the engine ahead of Valencia knowing that he had the same rods that let Felipe down...

Overall, I don't see anything but a similarity of Kimi '08 and Schumi '06.

There are more variables than Kimi that have caused this slump.

[alexbarwell]

Kimi does seem to be on the b-game and the second Ferrari drivers have a history of mechanical failures (don't get defensive, just think back). By various rumours Alonso is heading to Ferrari (how does this play with his involvement in spygate??) and Massa is on a roll at the moment. Legality of team orders begs the question 'define legal', if your prefered driver has the better mechanicals to achieve the desired effect of the team orders, just pissing off the second driver with reliability issues. Remember in the past some drivers have been pulled out of a race so the team mate vying for the title can use parts from their car - good old days.

[Chaparral]

You would have to suspect its a bit more than Massa being a quicker on track guy - when KR is on his game Massa would be eating his dust - theres something more behind this and what that is I dont know - btw Im not a fan of either driver or team. I was reading an article in the UK magazine Motor Sport a few months back where Kimi says in essence 'with the regulations as they are unless you start from pole or the front row you have very little chance of winning so I drive round as quick as I can hoping to get a break/advantage during the pit stop sequence and if not I hope for clean air at the end of the race so I can punch out my fastest laps just so I know Im competitive' or words to that effect - and if you look at the specs he has something like 9-10 fastest laps this season ad they are all in the last quarter of the race - which leads me to the fact that diffusers are not necessarily designed for the stability of the car but (actually) to deter following cars from getting within 1 second of the leading car and therefore 'dirty air' and a 'no go/no pass' zone - so who can blame Kimi. Its the same thing with Valencia - I say its quite a brilliant drivers track but all I read it was a snore fest - well dont blame the track blame the lame regs for that problem - I love the layout - its every bit as good as Melbourne and hopefully in time will become a legendary event like the old Mediterranean GP. As for Massa winning this years WDC - if he does then I think I will take up watching Ciro building roads

[Moanlower]

With 60 points left to earn and Kimi being 13 points behind the leader and only 6 to Massa it's way too early to make such conclusions.

Kimi's poor performance recently is not because he's only interested in fastest lap times. [-X

The window where the Bridgestone tyre works optimum, depending on tyre pressure and temperature is very small. Massa drives with a rather boring understeered car which allows him to get his front tyres easely up to temperature, where Kimi prefers a slight oversteered car which makes it much more difficult for him to get his front tyres to an uptimum working temperature.

Thats also the reason why it is hard for him to set a fast single lap during quali, and why he only has a small amount of laps during the race where his tyres are at optimum temperature and pressure.

Not having your tyres at the right temperature for a couple of laps also means the pressure in the tyre will drop which makes things even harder.

[donskar]

Love them or hate them, no one creates more interest in F1 than Ferrari.

On the latest spate of rumors as to who drives next year, di Montezemolo is pretty clear, don't you think?

"Raikkonen remains motivated. He only needs to start faster, we still have to work on that. Especially on the new circuits, that I don't like at all and that aren't a good thing for F1, that's important. You just can't pass at those tracks. The driver who starts from pole position wins nine out of the ten times."

This ends the rumours that Fernando Alonso would join he red squad next season. "Too bad for Alonso, but he has to be patient," di Montezemolo added."

And are there any names in F1 more musical than "Luca Cordera di Montezemolo"???

[alexbarwell]

donskar - last di-monte-zuma quote sounds like a deal behind closed doors going dodo stylee. I will admit to thinking Massa was off the radar in the first part of the season as he had a spate of heading for the scenery which doesn't make for good points, but then with that in mind, if kimi showed more consistency then he should be ahead of Massa because of those races (other than engine based DNF). The lack of overtaking could be to do with some cars having only small performance differences between them (normally) and a number of overtaking moves are considered daring, smart or totally stupid based on outcome/luck. Single make suffers from some of this with aspects of contact sports making the difference - seen what a banger-race some single make championships can become? Good idea Herr Mosley

[WhiteBlue]

it looks pretty likely now that Massa will lead the Ferrari campaign 2008.

[TRICKLE69]

100%