Former Scuderia Ferrari driver Felipe Massa believes that the Maranello team’s “top priority” should be fixing the reliability issues rather than naming a clear number 1 driver in the battle against Max Verstappen for the 2022 Formula 1 drivers’ title.
Felipe Massa is aware that he had a number 2 driver status in his first and last part of his Ferrari career, while racing alongside the ultra-successful Michael Schumacher in 2006 and during his last few years with the Maranello team, when Fernando Alonso was his teammate:
“The roles were clear in 2006,” the Brazilian, now 41, said in a recent interview for Italian daily newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport – “Then came Kimi Raikkonen. We agreed with him that before the race in Spa we can fight, and then the one who is behind helps his teammate,” Felipe Massa confirmed.
The former Ferrari driver said that such examples are relevant for today’s situation, as Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz are currently both in the top 4 drivers ahead of the French Grand Prix, but also clearly behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
“I don’t know what the situation is now, but at the moment, for Ferrari, reliability should be a top priority,” said Felipe Massa, just a few days after the Austrian Grand Prix, which was won by Charles Leclerc, as his Maranello teammate Carlos Sainz suffered a spectacular power unit failure in Spielberg.
“First they need to deal with this before assigning the number 1. Perhaps next time it will be Charles Leclerc who is out of the race and Carlos Sainz will win. So it’s too early to assign roles, because even in Maranello they don’t know who will get to the finish line in the next race. Psychologically for Carlos, in the Austrian Grand Prix, the fact that he spent the whole weekend behind his teammate, who had a better pace, weighed more than the retirement. However, the Spaniard has also progressed a lot compared to the start of the season: Ferrari now has two drivers who are heading in the right direction” – the former Ferrari driver added.
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While Carlos Sainz will most likely get a grid penalty in France, the positive news for the Maranello team is that the next two circuits should be favourable for the F1-75 cars: “Red Bull and Ferraris are very evenly matched,” former Formula 1 driver Christijan Albers said, as reported by the Dutch daily morning newspaper De Telegraaf – “That’s nice to see as they are two cars with two different philosophies. Now high downforce is with Ferrari and high speed is with Red Bull. I see Paul Ricard as clearly a circuit for Ferrari, despite the two straights. I also see Hungary as a Ferrari circuit, but then we go to Spa where Red Bull should be very strong.” – he continued.
Regarding Felipe Massa’s concerns about the number 1 / number 2 status, Christijan Albers feels Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto is managing the situation it “reasonably well” publicly: “On the other hand, they lost so many points with Charles Leclerc. Max Verstappen also lost a lot of points but with Charles Leclerc it was also stupid tactics and strategies.” – he concluded.
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