You don't believe in Felipe Massa? Read this and think about it again!

I was asked on Twitter to defend Felipe Massa on Badger GP’s article. And I personally think I did a great job. My honest opinion. Here’s what I wrote:

Where should I start. As I am Massa’s fan, I will always support him and stay behind him no matter what happens. First of all, I think his accident haven’t changed him at all. I just can’t believe. Just look at back to 2010 season - he had perfect start for the year as he was leading the championship after 2 firsts races, by finishing on podium at Bahrain and at Australia. And well, then he had some downs. But at German GP, he had a great start and was leading the race. That race was held exactly one year after Felipe’s accident and it would have been so amazing to see him back winning, after that kind of horrible accident from he survived. In my opinion, only the strongest people can survive something like that. He was surprisingly fastly back in F1, in the action. I can’t stop imagining what would it have been if Felipe would have won that race. But Ferrari made the most sick thing ever. They made the team order everyone in the F1 World knows very well. This totally ended my respect for Ferrari. Every single peace of my respect. I never supported Alonso in my life either, but what Ferrari did is unacceptable.

After that, Felipe got couple podiums. Then in 2011, no podiums. He had so much bad luck, team failed on his pitstops, but also they used Felipe as a tester. Sometimes it seems for me that Ferrari forgets Felipe totally. Seems like they have only one driver and that’s Alonso. I feel like Felipe doesn’t have a real possibility. I heard a thing that Felipe’s new chassis for last weekend was actually meant to be on Alonso’s car since Spain, but the team noticed it wasn’t that good so they didn’t give it to Alonso and gave it to Felipe instead. Felipe felt positive about it and he seemed a bit faster with it but still there was gap to Alonso. And well, it’s true Felipe has now finished first two races without points, but so he did in 2008, too. And then he lost the championship by one single point. Not many things needed to go in different way and Felipe could have been the champion, clearly. But things just happened. Singapore crash gate, Hungarian GP engine failure… and of course Brazilian GP’s last lap, but that wouldn’t have mattered if Singapore or / and Hungary didn’t go that way. And well, at Malaysia Felipe did one little mistake and it was unbelieveable to see how wrong things went after that. Felipe has too much pressure now. Of course pressure is a good thing sometimes but Felipe has too much of it in my opinion. The media, and most of all F1 fans don’t believe in him. But I am one of those rare persons who still do. I always will. Felipe needs a team with support. In Ferrari, he doesn’t gain it anymore as he used to gain in the past years, It’s all about Alonso now. I want Felipe to change team that he could be free again and be totally supported. No matter if it’s not one of the big 3 (Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes). I just want he is happy and can do his best again. But if Felipe needs to show that he is still fast, Ferrari needs to support him REALLY. Not just say that they support him. They need to make action, too. But in my opinion Felipe doesn’t need to prove anything. He already did it in the past. The end.

The same continues. Still.

Okay so I just saw something which made me so angry.

And it made me to think about things. Again. Because I hate any kind of unfairness. And specially how unfair almost everyone is to Felipe Massa.

Let’s go back to year 2008. I just want to remind that Felipe was the strongest driver on the grid. He made only several mistakes during the season: at the two first GP’s, Australia and Malaysia. And then later at the rainy Silverstone. But his season was perfect. He couldn’t do anything better. He would have been champion without World’s worse luck. Not talking about Brazil because Brazilian GP wouldn’t have mattered. Because Felipe was clearly going to win race at Singapore, but then happens the mafia planned crash. Which took cars to the pit and which made Ferrari not to use their automatical light system so they had to change green light manually. They made the light green too early and.. you know what happened. There goes 10 points and the victory. Then at Hungary, great start, great race, victory on his hands… then engine failure 3 laps before the end and Heikki Kovalainen takes the prize.

I know it’s stupid to continue this again and again and again but the fact is that if Felipe could have won those races, he would have been clear champion and have like 20 points more than Hamilton had. And results of Brazilian GP wouldn’t have done anything to take away his title. What I am looking with this all is that everyone would respect and treat Felipe in different way if he would be World Champion. He isn’t - and people are talking so much shit about him. Specially fans of that one driver. That one driver that crashed into Felipe many times last year. And most of times it was fault of that one driver and not Felipe’s. Couple times they both were at wrong place at wrong time. If Felipe would be champion, then Hamilton wouldn’t. How would he get treated then? Yeah, think about that.

F1 "Silly Season"

We finally know all the drivers for 2012, after long waiting. I think “silly season” is definitely right name for it, because there was lot of rumours going on about everything, and in the end some driver seats were lost and gained with huge surprises to the fans of F1.

I’m not personally happy with all the decisions that some teams made. Of course, they do what they think it’s their best. But here’s some speculations of I would have done with the seats this year. I’m mostly talking about those drivers who got replaced and those who replaced them.

Here’s some names: Rubens Barrichello, Jaime Alguersuari, Vitali Petrov, Sebastien Buemi, Jerome D’Ambrosio, Adrian Sutil. None of these six drivers who were on the grid last year will be racing in Formula 1 this year. That’s a huge shame! SIX DRIVERS! That’s a huge number, and most of these drivers were replaced by drivers who had some $$$ with them to bring.

I’m not surprised what happened to D’Ambrosio and Sutil if I am honest. D’Ambrosio is still young and it’s hard to impress in a car like Marussia is. He had a contract for 2012, but Marussia suddenly hired Charles Pic and D’Ambrosio was without seat. That’s very unfair, but this is F1. You can’t be sure about anything, we have seen this too many times. I would have understood the change if Pic would be a special talent, but I don’t see anything special on Pic compared to D’Ambrosio. Pic might be handsome for some girls, but I am talking about driving skills, WHICH IS THE ONLY THING THAT SHOULD MATTER IN FORMULA 1.

And to Sutil’s situation. We all know what happened. I don’t know how I should feel about him, but it’s another shame, but he kinda caused it himself. I think teams were aware to hire him. Because if he would have got into jail during the season, that means that team would have had to take someone to replace Sutil. I don’t have anything against Sutil, but I think his career at least at Formula 1 is kinda over.

Force India took Nico Hülkenberg to replace Adrian Sutil, and I think it was a right decision. I was shocked after 2010 when Hülkenberg was left without seat even he took a pole position at Brazil with poor Williams. I hope that Nico can really show his talent with Force India now.

Then, Rubens Barrichello. A loved, very wonderful personality, great Brazilian veteran driver wanted to continue in F1. But he couldn’t do. He still had motivation and everything, so I think it’s wrong that money won this time. Bruno Senna’s cash won for the seat at Williams, and Maldonado was confirmed there already, too. There were still other seats free, but things went as it went. That’s sad, and I hope all the best for Rubinho. Seems like he’s getting into Indy Car, and if he does, I hope lot of success for him!

Then, there could have been seat at HRT. If I would be a racing driver, I wouldn’t go there, because that team basicly destroys your career. They said from HRT that they aren’t interested in another “old driver that is coming to the end of his career”. That’s how they spoke about rumours that Barrichello might come there. But I just can’t understand why did they hire Pedro De la Rosa. If I would have choosen between De la Rosa and Barrichello, I would have chosen Barrichello. Rubens has so many years of experience of racing in F1 and it could have helped HRT to take step forward. De la Rosa has experience too, but mainly as a test driver for many many years. Well - that’s their decision and I have to deal with that.

Another decision from HRT that I can’t understand is that they took Narain Karthikeyan back as their racing driver. Maybe Narain had some cash to give. I’m like 90% sure that Karthikeyan will be replaced by someone else during some part of the season. Nothing against, sorry to sound rude, but that’s the way it really is and I think all of you know it.

Then to Lotus. They took Kimi Räikkönen and I think it was a great decision. It’s a great thing for F1, and Kimi is back there where he belongs to. Lotus hired Romain Grosjean as Kimi’s team mate, so Vitali Petrov was dropped out even Petrov had a contract for 2012, like D’Ambrosio had. But I think somehow it was right, as Grosjean have had a touch with the team for very long. Also, Grosjean was GP2 champion, and it’s almost for sure that GP2 champion will get a seat from F1. And I think the French man deserves second change, after he came to the team when it still was Renault, to replace Nelson Piquet Jr. and to be Fernando Alonso’s team mate as a rookie. I think it’s most horrible situation to be a rookie driver and get as Alonso’s team mate. We know what happened to Piquet. What a shame for him, really.. I believe he would have had talent and things could have been different. But what happened, happened, and we cannot change it. Shame for Petrov - he’s got my respect as he kept Alonso behind at Abu Dhabi 2010…

And then, the last and most shocking. Toro Rosso. Both their drivers, Alguersuari and Buemi (Suari specially) had a good season and both could have deserved to continue in F1, in my point of view. But they dropped both these drivers, and bring in Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne. Ricciardo was kinda expected, but that both drivers will be replaced… I think nobody really expected that. And it ended like Alguersuari was left without racing seat or even a reserve driver seat. Buemi at least got Red Bull / Toro Rosso reserve driver seat, but I think he expected for more. Helmut Marko said that Toro Rosso is made to help young drivers get through to the F1, but the fact is, clear and pure fact is, that the only driver so far who got the real possibility with STR was Sebastian Vettel. All other drivers who have been driving with Toro Rosso through the years have been replaced sooner or later, and in the end almost all of those drivers left F1. Vitantonio Liuzzi was the only one to get back into F1 - but then his career kinda ended now thanks to HRT. Alguersuari is still young guy, so I hope he will get a second change very soon. It would be a big shame if we can’t see him in F1 anymore.

So, we will still see Buemi and D’Ambrosio around, as reserve drivers. But we have to say bye at least for one season to guys like Rubens Barrichello, Vitali Petrov, Jaime Alguersuari, Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi.

P.S. Caterham should get rid of Trulli. He complains about everything and doesn’t seem to be motivated anymore.. they could replace him to like Barrichello for example - to veteran, who still has motivation and love to racing. He truly shows it. Trulli doesn’t.