Thread: Why is Massa not a favorite race winner?

i could claim that Massa is my favorite driver

massa is my favorite now...

Unfortunately for Massa armchair enthusiasts who think they know a lot about f1 consider him to be immature and reckless, prone to mistakes, these assumptions stick, like with the Montoya/Ralf thing, pound for pound they both made the same amount of errors and crashes, but when Montoya did it、 it was "here we go again, crazy Montoya" but when Ralf did it there had to be mitigating circumstances.
i always quite liked Massa, even in his Sauber days when he was criticized most strongly.
so good luck to him.

Originally Posted by leopardsleeping

When will he gain the same popularity as Alonso or Kimi?

I think he's earning the respect of fans with every race. Everyone expected Kimi to come in and dominate at Ferrari, but Massa has worked very hard in testing over the winter and seems to have matured quite a bit. He has learned from his race start in Malaysia and he had the maturity to come from the back into the points gradually in Australia rather than pushing too hard and trying to regain all those places in a couple of laps. He is a much better driver than he was in his Sauber days and hopefully he will continue to improve.

Having said that, I still hope to see Kimi's luck improving in the near future, too. I don't think we are done seeing him win this year!

This is a very interesting topic...

it is almost like he snuck in at Ferrari...everyone knew he was there but would question why he was there..

very much under the radar has his improvements been...hmmmm
(sorry...a little yoda thing going on)

To me, it seems that he does not have the fan base that Kimi and Alonso have..mind you, im sure the Brazilians are going utterly nuts over his recent form.

He still seems wet behind the ears, maybe this is just the way he comes across, as we all know now that he is a serious contender for the title. If he does get the title, I'm not quite sure how that will sit in the excitement stakes for me...not sure why...

Massa is a very likable driver and seems to good and too soft for consistent winner and champion. I was sure after Malaysia that he is done. Yet, in Bahrain and Barcelona he was amazing and now I think that he might become a world champion, if Ferrari continue to have superior pace and fix their reliabilty problems.

I guess you could say he is kind of like a Mansell.

Pretty damn quick, but looking rather unsteady at times.

Which some people for various reasons seem to like, whilst it doesn't do much for others.

Originally Posted by rlenis

massa is my favorite now...

lol ... who's next?

Originally Posted by AJP

To me, it seems that he does not have the fan base that Kimi and Alonso have..mind you, im sure the Brazilians are going utterly nuts over his recent form.

Probably, his origin doesn't have strong culture about car racing among top drivers and has no massive support for him.

There is always poll before the race on TV and it said Massa always comes after Kimi and Alonso.

Originally Posted by leopardsleeping

He started mostly of the races off from the pole, if only there wasn't gearbox failure in Melbourne it wasn't impossible that he made the same start, and it will not be impossible also that we shall see he make the same start in front of anybody.

Strangely, he is not favorite winner of every race. Kimi and Alonso gain more voter than him although Massa was obvious the best man in qualifying. Massa is obviously a fast driver, like the blitz or the shark

When will he gain the same popularity as Alonso or Kimi?

It's simple, people are biased.
Forum members usually support drivers based on nationality.

Also being a Ferrari driver doesn't help to much, as they are not liked since they dominated F1 for 5 consecutive years.

I have a feeling that Massa will dominate mostly qualifying of the season, except maybe in pouring rain race.
If he can maintain what he performed in qualifying at the real race, title is widely open for him.

But, i reckon from MS era that Ferrari has a not too good start, bad acceleration at the start. On the other hand Alonso has good start since he was driving the Renault. This is a thing that Massa has to be careful of, Alonso will steal his pole position at the first corner of the starts.

Be careful Massa!

Massa's forte is that he had learned from Schumacher how to get the entire team behind him. He is a real team guy. You won't see him leave the track after a retirement.

Originally Posted by leopardsleeping

I have a feeling that Massa will dominate mostly qualifying of the season, except maybe in pouring rain race.
If he can maintain what he performed in qualifying at the real race, title is widely open for him.

But, i reckon from MS era that Ferrari has a not too good start, bad acceleration at the start. On the other hand Alonso has good start since he was driving the Renault. This is a thing that Massa has to be careful of, Alonso will steal his pole position at the first corner of the starts.

Be careful Massa!

It seems that Massa has learned from MS how to protect his position in starts.

Originally Posted by ioan

It's simple, people are biased.
Forum members usually support drivers based on nationality.

What has nationality to do with it? People like or dislike celebrities based on some impressions they get from them, and how those impressions are in line with their own beliefs.

Should I remind you that Senna had a huge following and came from the same country as Massa does?

Originally Posted by ioan

Also being a Ferrari driver doesn't help to much, as they are not liked since they dominated F1 for 5 consecutive years.

I didn't see Manchester United's fanabse dwinde after their total domination of the English Premier League early this decade. I can probably come up with dozens of similar examples off the top of my head.

Originally Posted by aryan

What has nationality to do with it? People like or dislike celebrities based on some impressions they get from them, and how those impressions are in line with their own beliefs.

Should I remind you that Senna had a huge following and came from the same country as Massa does?

It's OK to contradict my POV but than it will be more difficult not to see that all the Finnish people around here are Kimi fans, also all the Spanish ones are Alonso fans, the English ones support their own drivers ( it was Button and DC till Hamilton came around) and so on.

Also do you think that British fans rooted more for Senna or for Mansell?
Or maybe French ones supported more Senna than they supported Prost?

Originally Posted by aryan

I didn't see Manchester United's fanabse dwinde after their total domination of the English Premier League early this decade. I can probably come up with dozens of similar examples off the top of my head.

Do not compare a worldwide fan base with our forum.
A quick glimpse in the thread about the FIA favoring McLaren will show you how beneficial is to be part of the Ferrari team.

Ioan, in general Ferrari is the most popular team. There was a FIA survey and Ferrari won easily.

Originally Posted by F1boat

Ioan, in general Ferrari is the most popular team. There was a FIA survey and Ferrari won easily.

You're right, I was referring only to the forum.

Originally Posted by F1boat

Ioan, in general Ferrari is the most popular team. There was a FIA survey and Ferrari won easily.

Every you lad wants to own a Ferrari when he is old enough to drive.
I dreamt of racing a red Ferrari when I was very young - had a little toy red car which I kept on the window sill next to my bed.
Never heard any kid wanting a Williams or Renault.

Originally Posted by Valve Bounce

Every you lad wants to own a Ferrari when he is old enough to drive.
I dreamt of racing a red Ferrari when I was very young - had a little toy red car which I kept on the window sill next to my bed.
Never heard any kid wanting a Williams or Renault.

I've never heard about Williams when I first knew about Ferrari. I knew about Renault as most of the people were driving those around me.
But the very first I knew was Skoda!