2013 Bahrain Grand Prix Thread

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by webberf1

Thats cute and all, but come back to me when Massa shows he can still consistently cut it with the big boys in the race. I dont call finishing China 2 secs ahead of a Toro Rosso on the exact same strategy convincing.

---

If your team mate always gets the better pitstop timing, you are disadvantaged by default. The race that convinced me was Austin last year. Massa had outqualified Alonso and was relegated five positions due to his team's grid manipulation. By the end of the race he had caught Alonso and had to be told to stay behind and finished right on Alonso's tail. How much more convincing do you need it?

But this is going off-topic. We should return to the topic at hand - the GP this weekend.

dj, let me remind you that Massa performances in the last two years have been so poor that Ferrari for months had considered to replace him. Fortunately so far he's done a good job, yet he's behind Alonso on points, and it's up to him to change that. He needs to be faster than Alonso both in practice, pole and race. All the rest is pure fantasy...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pino

dj, let me remind you that Massa performances in the last two years have been so poor that Ferrari for months had considered to replace him. Fortunately so far he's done a good job, yet he's behind Alonso on points, and it's up to him to change that. He needs to be faster than Alonso both in practice, pole and race. All the rest is pure fantasy...

---

Could you split the Massa discussion into a separate thread to keep this one clean?
Anyways - Massa was faster in training and quali often enough in the last races, yet he won't be allowed to finish ahead of Fernando. That's how Ferrari has always worked. They didn't hire Alonso as a potential #2. The moment he arrived it was clear, who would finish ahead.

Lol WHY do you need to keep making excuses for Massa? You're hilarious. He's getting consistently whooped by a far superior teammate - deal with it. Pitting 1 lap after your teammate is NOT an excuse for finishing 40 seconds down. And whoopdeedoo that he managed to match Alonso in one race.

Yes. End the Massa discussion now. This is supposed to be a race thread, not a comedy thread.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by webberf1

Lol WHY do you need to keep making excuses for Massa? You're hilarious. He's getting consistently whooped by a far superior teammate - deal with it. Pitting 1 lap after your teammate is NOT an excuse for finishing 40 seconds down. And whoopdeedoo that he managed to match Alonso in one race.

---

Well, if your username is any indication, you're the last one to talk :D

if it were, then yes. fortunately though I prefer to focus on whats happening on track: in this case Alonso being the best to watch.

Sorry but cannot split threads as I am using my iPhone at the moment, so lets just stick to topic :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by webberf1

if it were, then yes. fortunately though I prefer to focus on whats happening on track: in this case Alonso being the best to watch.

---

I think we found something to agree upon. He's a bloody joy to watch now that he has a car to match his talent :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dj_bytedisaster

Since Austin last year, Alonso has outqualified him only twice and one (today) doesn't count as they weren't on equal tires.

---

Since Austin? Pretty selective with your figures there buddy.

If we take last year as a whole, Fernando outqualified Massa 19:1 if we look at where they qualified and ignore the bogus gearbox demotion otherwise it would be a false 20:0.

If we factor in average qualifying place, again by adjusting Massa 5 less and adding 1 on to Alonso just to make it fair, we find that Felipe managed an average 9.6 slot while Alonso was a 6.15 so nearly 4 places between them in equal cars.

Massa has done better this year winning the qualifying battle 2:1 but one swallow does not a summer make. Lets see how it pans out shall we.

He's a nice guy but the butt monkey in the team because Fred is the faster driver. Ferrari is the very best he can get and he knows it. If he was quicker than Fred, he would peddle his wares elsewhere and team bosses would be falling over themselves to sign him.

BTW, the reason he went on Hards today was because he admitted he was struggleing for pace and knew Webber and Hamilton were going to be demoted so it was a low risk strategy. Still a reasonable time so well done to him.