F1 Update from iSport’s F1 Pitstop: iSporter and Motorsport Expert Kunal Shah believes that Felipe Massa should’ve stopped mid-way and headed home from the German Grand Prix.
Ferrari be damned! BAN Fernando Alonso and Ferrari for the rest of the season! Alonso’s a prick! I had many options to my headline, but I let humour (subtle, I’d say!) overtake my emotions while penning this piece!
Ferrari are at it again! 2002 and the Austrian Grand Prix was when they did it last, 2010 and they did it again at the German Grand Prix in Hockenheim. Ferrari used team-orders to instruct Felipe Massa to move over and allow Fernando Alonso to grab the race lead.
What transpired post the controversial pit message is meaningless. For those who missed Ferrari’s radio communication, here’s what I gathered.
Before the change of places Felipe Massa’s race engineer, Rob Smedley was heard to say:
‘Alonso is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?’
Rob Smedley
Not long after the message was broadcast Massa slowed at the exit of the hairpin and Alonso went pass. Afterwards Smedley told Massa:
‘OK mate, good lad. Stay with him now. Sorry.’
Rob Smedley
Ferrari are known to choose a no. 1 driver and it clearly is the pig headed Spaniard Fernando Alonso for 2010. However, Massa had matched Alonso’s pace lap by lap after snatching the lead of the race in a brave move at Turn 1 on the first lap.
Alonso did have one chance to overtake Massa while they were maneuvering through backmarkers and traffic , but Massa was smart enough to hold put. The other half chance was when Massa pitted for a tyre change and struggled to get his tyres up to temperature.
Post-race it was interesting to see both the drivers in Parc Ferme. Alonso mildly celebrated what he knew was a gifted win and Massa didn’t know where to look. Poor Massa badly needed a hug and it didn’t matter who it came from. Ironically, Ferrari’s post-race radio conversation was a joke too!
They edged on Massa and said that he was quick and was ‘magnanimous’ whereas Alonso’s conversation was brattish without any sign of guilt. You DESERVED to win made it sound as though they would have made him win at any cost – even if it meant declaring the second step of the podium as the top step! Alonso’s pace was quick no doubt, but to win you also need to beat your team-mate. In Alonso’s case, he prefers the radio communication rather than doing the hard work on track. (He asked for a similar favour at the Australian GP this year)
The FIA and its Stewards have known to favour Ferrari. The current FIA Chief is former Ferrari CEO Jean Todt. I think its only time that Ferrari are penalized for their over-brattish approach in Formula1.
As for Felipe Massa, I was hoping that he would quit the race mid-way, head home to trash his Ferrari contract and re-sign with Force India F1 for next year! Forza Felipe! Screw you Alonso!
Kunal Shah is a former racer and writes extensively on www.isport.in
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a guest
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... Couldnt have put it better myself......really hope Alonso & Ferrari are penalised.....Massa, what a man! |
a guest
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... I totally agree. The FIA must take action. The sport exists because me the fans and to not take action is like 2 fingers to the fans and a pat on Ferarri's back. |
Asif Khan
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... It was so disappointin to see Massa giving away his place to Alonso, really feel bad for him! How could Ferrari be so pathetic! |
a guest
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... Funny article. Couldn't be more biased. I hate comparing, but Gunjan's article is quite unbiased. I'm neither a Ferrari fan nor an Alonso fan, but this article really cracked me up. It's written in a state of passion really. Coming to the so called fine itself, really once again I ain't surprised. FIA needs to brush these chinks off their armor efficiently and in a slightly less unbiased fashion as compared to this article. |
Kunal Shah
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... Mr. Guest - do register, so we know who we're talking to !  Yes, the article is passionate and I don't deny it. That is what iSport is all about, voicing your opinion and doing it in the way you like it. I am passionate about F1 and I am glad it shows in my article. Glad you liked it! FIA is lethargic and they are not keen on improving on their inefficiencies! |
a guest
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... If I wanted to watch an orchestrated event i'd go and watch a symphony!!! One way to stop any team doing this sort of thing is to take away the win and the points. I want to watch racing drivers race! |
ralph
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... Hey Kunal, Do not get me wrong buddy, I do like your articles and your writing quite easily shows your passion towards the sport which most of us enjoy. It's just that this article had some lines which may have been quite harshly worded (cough - even for Alonso?). The passion to win makes everyone a cry baby at some point, and seemingly most of them continue to remain so till they quit the sport. Almost all of these racers (and mostly champions at that) are sore losers (cough - Schumi) and we can take this back to even the muscled greatness of the Senna-Prost era (Senna included). The bottom-line; they're all here to win and will sore up when it goes the other way. But this year we've seen how things effect the sport when teams make decisions without bringing a touch of subtlety that some of the older management practiced over the years (referring to poor management by Ferrari, Red Bull and word has it that only time will tell a different tale on the flowery picture shown at McLaren). Quite frankly not many would have imagined the level of animosity between Vettel and Webber prior to their infamous crash and the incidents that followed thereafter. Coming back to last evening, Ferrari "badly" executed a team order that most teams do any which way either on field or off it. The penalty they got was a joke really and it easily should have been severe, possibly even a multi-race ban. Having said all this, I'm sure there are things we are not yet savvy to that brings prioritized governing justice and a flow of green paper to the sport that makes these decisions the way they came to us. The post race press conference and in particular the hounding questions from the floor by the journos at Hockenheim was also a fun event. For obvious reasons it was centered around this team-order-gate incident; poor Vettel was left to sip his orange fillers and he even suggested leaving the room when he was asked to sit by Alonso. Vettel's words struck a decent amount of providence to the general feeling gathered over the course of the last month or so. Putting it down for readers to ponder and think over: (Miran Alisic – Korpmedia) I have a question for Sebastian. I think you had some not similar but close situations with Mark as well. Do you feel proud that what has happened at Ferrari today hasn't happened in your team? Vettel: Don't you have another question maybe? Yeah, maybe they should have crashed. I don't know, I haven't seen the incident. I was too far back. I always saw them going into the hairpin when I was coming out of turn five, so I don't know what you're all talking about. I can guess but I don't know. For sure my advice would not be it's better to crash because also then you get a lot of questions that you have to answer so... Yeah, for me I was focusing on my own race and trying to do my thing, trying to stay close enough, trying to get closer, trying to put them under pressure. It didn't work, so I'm not pleased with that. No matter who you race, it's always difficult in Formula One to pass people and sometimes you have to take a lot of risk. When you don't have to race your team-mate, you're racing for the team, both of you, both drivers and on the other hand everyone looks for his own advantage. We had a couple of situations this year in our team, so it's quite a comedy that we are not in focus at this stage but life changes quickly, so... It's never wise to say anything that you might regret. Maybe in a week's time. I'm happy where we are now, as a team. Again, I can only repeat that from the outside there was more of a fuss made than there was inside. I can assure you that Mark and myself are always looking to do our best but on top of that, I think we understood many times this year that the team is the main priority and we are racing for the team, in the end. We don't get our cheque from you guys, we get it from the team. I think that's something we always have to respect. Do excuse the longish nature of this comment (perhaps it could be an article on its own accord). Cheers, (formerly Mr. Guest) |
Kunal Shah
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... HAHA Thanks Ralph. There are team orders in F1 and that is true. IT was badly executed in Germany is true as well. Just that Ferrari could've done a better job at it. They believe that their brattish approach is fine and allowed and they are above all else when it comes to F1 and it is this attitude that should be put to question. The penalty is a joke too, I agree! Vettel saying that they should've crashed is fun! ;-) I wish I was in the media room there!!  Thank you for the feedback. |
a guest
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... Kunal, One thing is for Sure, Jean Todd will not favor Ferrari cause he was kicked out of Ferrari. After Ross Brawn and Jean Todd Left, I don't see Good leadership in the Ferrari camp which might one day bring their downfall ~Avi |
Kunal Shah
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... Thanks Avi - I do agree that there's lack of leadership in Ferrari. Stefano is worthless!! However, let's hope that they don't cause their doom too soon!! Do register Avi! Cheers! |
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