Donkey of the race? Australia 2011

[markabilly]

Donkey - Massa.

Just so so slow and seems to going backwards as a driver. I hope the crash in 2009 hasn't caused this, but he doesn't seem to be able to get anywhere near Alonso.

He would have been better ignoring team orders in Germany in 2010 and just getting the victory. Because I can't see him ever winning another race.

That may well be true.

Not sure why he would have been all that bothered about letting Fred pass to screw up Button in this race, but it seemed that his race went straight into the toilet after that.

However, that seems to be the case with drivers who find themselves not being the favorite. Look at Webber right now, and look at Alonso when he was at mac, or hamilton's behavior in competing against Alonso when they were on the same team.

[truefan72]

Agreed, it's a great shame, back in 2008 it looked like he was headed for greatness, but has gone backwards ever since.

It was easy then when he had the best car on the grid and if he got pole he could drive away to victory.
The lack of his skill clearly showed when he was asked to defend his position or make passes to climb up the charts. All too often he failed.

In malaysia he had the pole, lost it to kimi after pitstops and spun out by himself while in 2nd position
In Canada, both his WDC rivals were out of the race but he could only manage a 5th place 43 seconds behind Kubica
In Silverstone he was horrible,
In Germany,Hamilton had to pit after the SC and still caught him and passed him,
In Spa, he was nowhere to be found while Kimi and Hamilton were in an epic battle,
In Japan he had a poor start and then proceeded to ram into Hamilton,

and this was the year folks say he "deserved the championship"
The fact is, he is a slightly above average to decent driver in a very good car, who still needs his engineer to talk him through practically every lap of every GP

[PSfan]

Rubens would be an easy choice on account to his brain fade in qualifying with a repeat performance during the race...
Nick also deserves recognition for not being able to take a podium capable car into q2 and thus I see a relation between the damage that slowed his car in the race with the qualifying position he achieved.

But clearly the winner of DONKEY OF THE RACE earned the recognition partly due to his post race comments... Button I am truly in awe of your donkey-ness...


First he calls Massa slow, guess he forgot his little hissy fit radio call to the pits questioning why Messa was pulling away from him on the straights... (BTW, while a meaningless stat... fastest lap of the race - yah Massa got it)

Then he accuses Massa of blocking... strong words not backed up by anything I saw re-watching the race.

Claims he was ahead prior to going off track - Once again if he would have watched a replay of the incident he might have kept his yap shut on this, but clearly being told by the FIA via drive through penalty that he wasn't ahead wasn't enough for Button.

The kicker of course is accusing Ferrari of pitting Massa to ensure a drive through. Really? Button's dumb enough to suggest this? OK, if it was so obvious (and the overhead views I saw where pretty conclusive) that Ferrari would alter their strategy just so Button would be forced to take a drive through, why wasn't the position given back before Massa pitted? also explain to me How come if this was why Ferrari pitted Massa, why would they have pitted Alonso first?

[Ari]

I think we should wait a little longer before planting the boots into Webber.

He wasn't given the same car as Vettel this weekend. A defective chassis killed Webbers weekend before it started. This confirmed by Marko.

VERY unprofessional start to the season by RBR.

[Rollo]

I think we should wait a little longer before planting the boots into Webber.

He wasn't given the same car as Vettel this weekend. A defective chassis killed Webbers weekend before it started. This confirmed by Marko.

VERY unprofessional start to the season by RBR.

How long is the "bad luck" card effective for? 3 years? 5 years?

In the meantime, Alonso who was behind Webber at Minardi has become World Champion and his team mate Vettel has become World Champion. Vettel won a GP in the season before Webber did and in a worse car.

I used to think that Webber never had a race win in him. That was proven wrong, but I still don't think that he's in the same class of driver as Vettel, Alonso and Hamilton.

[SGWilko]

A defective chassis killed Webbers weekend before it started. This confirmed by Marko.

VERY unprofessional start to the season by RBR.

Interesting - does one have a link?

[Garry Walker]

In Canada, both his WDC rivals were out of the race but he could only manage a 5th place 43 seconds behind Kubica
In Silverstone he was horrible,
In Germany,Hamilton had to pit after the SC and still caught him and passed him,
In Spa, he was nowhere to be found while Kimi and Hamilton were in an epic battle,
In Japan he had a poor start and then proceeded to ram into Hamilton,

At canada, he was screwed by pitstops and was forced to do an extra pitstop because in the first pitstop they were unable to fuel him.
Silvestone - agreed
hockhenheim- so? Was he the only driver to be passed by Hamilton in that race?
At spa he was only a few seconds behind Hamilton all the way through the race.
Japan - so a bad start makes him an idiot at once? I should do a list of what dumb things Hamilton did in 2008

[555-04Q2]

Rubens for sure. That was atttempted move was optimistic even for the likes of a rookie, let alone a 300+ GP veteran!!!

[SGWilko]

Rubens for sure. That was atttempted move was optimistic even for the likes of a rookie, let alone a 300+ GP veteran!!!

What if it WAS the tyres;

If Rubens was merely braking according to the grip level of his tyres and Nico to his more worn tyres this would be the result - we had an inkling that the tyres would be 5+ secs different in different stages, so maybe there is truth in his reason for the crash.......?

[Robinho]

At canada, he was screwed by pitstops and was forced to do an extra pitstop because in the first pitstop they were unable to fuel him.
Silvestone - agreed
hockhenheim- so? Was he the only driver to be passed by Hamilton in that race?
At spa he was only a few seconds behind Hamilton all the way through the race.
Japan - so a bad start makes him an idiot at once? I should do a list of what dumb things Hamilton did in 2008

i think the point is that was supposed to be Massa's best year. everything else has been worse, at that wasn't SO special to start with.

i like the kid, i really do, but he's just not got "IT" whatever "IT" is. there are plenty of others who have now, and as good a car, and he'll never outshine them all