The media and fans give Massa a lot of negative attention, saying he isn't fast enough, he'll never be like his team-mate,etc,etc. But how much is that down to the terrible luck he's had over the years? I mean he's had a huge injury where he got hit in the head by a flying spring out of nowhere, lost a WDC because a Toyota was 30 seconds slower on one lap, and even last week, where he had a puncture at the worst possible time. Is Felipe Massa one of the unluckiest ever? Btw, I realise people will say he's lucky to even have a seat at Ferrari but just think about what I've said.
There have been many drivers that I have followed that due to one event or another, just managed to miss out on a title at the death... so I wouldn't count losing the championship as bad luck since certain events transpired where both he and Lewis lost potential points in the run up to Brazil.. That's just motor racing unfortunately. I actually really like Massa... He seems like a really genuine guy and an all round nice bloke. It seems to me like the injury did affect him badly. He spend the latter part of '09 out of the title only to return to find Alonso as the new Ferrari hope, so not only did he have to contend with getting himself race fit and physically fit again, he had a new team leader to contend with. When that new leader is somebody of Alonso's stature, That's not an easy set of circumstance to overcome. I've heard people say that it can take a couple of years to overcome an incident like Massa suffered so I really hope that he finds his grove again before Ferrari drop the axe. All drivers suffer bad luck from time to time. An appalling injury like he suffered though truly, was bad luck.
I like Massa but I would certainly not consider him one of the unluckiest ever. For a start, he's still alive! On top of that, he's been paid a fortune over the years to be a Ferrari lap-dog: something most racing drivers would be happy to lose a few fingers for. Of course, he was unlucky to suffer a very nasty accident; but he was lucky that it was not career ending or worse, and he was lucky that Ferrari were benevolent enough - not only to give him time to recover - but to want to keep him on for years afterwards. Massa is not 'unlucky' in the least; and I include his moment of glory where, had Hamilton not passed Glock at the last moment, Massa would have been almost as lucky to win a title as Raikkonen! I repeat: I like Massa; he's a good guy. But no way is he "one of the unluckiest in F1 ever"!
Due to the incredibly high saftey standards of today, of course he's alive. No-one dies today in F1. Thankfully Webber didn't last year in Valencia, he was fine, but he would have been seroiusly injured or dead had it been earlier. That crash would have killed Massa had it been a few years earlier or at least made it impossible for him to return to F1. Glock slowing down on the last lap in Brazil there was nothing Massa could do about it, and Hamilton definetely wasn't going to re-overtake Vettel but IMO the luck went to Hamilton in that last lap. He also seemingly gets a ****load of random punctures and failures. Not to mention as Bhaji said, Alonso came to the team at completely the wrong time for Massa, when he was recovering. So I'll change the title of this. Is Massa one of the unluckiest in current times?
I used to think the same until '94 came along. In the years that I'd watched F1 up until '94 there hadn't been a death in a race(though there had in testing, I think the last was at Paul Ricard.), then out of the blue, two came in one weekend... not to count Barrichello and Wendlinger's accidents that were pretty nasty and could have been fatal in the same year. F1 and all other motor sports are dangerous and there is still a real possibility of fatalities. Not just for the drivers but for spectators and marshals too. 2000 and 2001 are prime examples. Massa was lucky... very lucky. Had that spring hit him clean in the visor he would have been dead. Only a matter of weeks before that incident, Henry Surtees was killed due to a wheel entering his cockpit following a collision. Never assume it's safe... It's not.
I think it's fair to say you can die in just about any sport atm. You could die in ice hockey, swimming, football, etc. But since '94 saftey standards have gone up hugely. Before then a slight tap from someone else would send you spinning. Not anymore though, the cars are so much more robust. We've seen huge crashes since then where, had it been pre- '94 standards the driver would have died. Like Kubica in '07 and Webber in '10. There has been a huge amont of the development on the Formula One helmet since '94 which played a massive part in protecting Massa. That's not luck. That was absolutely necessary. Having a near-death experience is also not luck in any way. For the drivers safety I'm glad some stupid concepts like artificial rain have been pushed away.
When people start getting complacent, that's when fatalities seem more likely to occur. You have pointed out some pretty bug shunts there, but I could identify a whole host of massive shunts prior to '94 that I witnessed where you truly were amazed that the drivers walked away. There was a sense that drivers could get away with anything and walk away from it for a while... until reality hit. Motor sport is far more dangerous than the other sports that you have listed, not just for drivers, but for spectators and officials. There have been some close calls and I hope it stays that way. Massa was lucky, extremely lucky. There is only so much technology that can be applied to a drivers lid. Had he been impacted a couple of inch further south and taken that spring full in the visor, he wouldn't be with us today.
Without that technology he would have died anyway, regardless of whether the spring had hit him in the visor or not. And the cars are much more reliable these days, the drivers less likely to get complacent. As I said, there is nothing lucky about a near-death experience. Those circumstances in which Massa got injured were unlucky in the extreme. The odds of that spring hitting his car alone were slim, much less the chance of the spring flying up and hitting the tiny portion of helmet sticking out of the cockpit. And I'm not saying people die in other sports than in motor racing. I'm just pointing that you can die in just about any sport. Except chess. Unless you choke on one of the pieces accidentally...
It might make chess an interesting spectator sport. Joking aside though, I wasn't using that as an example of how Massa isn't unlucky. I was saying he was lucky to make it through a very unfortunate incident and I personally think that the safer things seem to be, the more complacent everybody becomes. I feel we went of on a tangent....
Yes, it's true that today's drivers are luckier to be driving in this era than in the early days. Even up to the early 70s, there was a statistical 1 in 3 chance that a driver would die; and it happened to some of the greatest of all, including Jim Clark of all people! And as many have said since, "if it could happen to Jimmy, it could happen to any of us". It is our destiny to live when we do; but any budding motor racing driver is far luckier to live in these times rather than back then. Senna was unlucky. So was Roland Ratzenberger and Gilles (nutter) Villeneuve and… (obviously I could go on and on). In the modern era since Senna's death, Massa has had his fair share of ups and downs, but it's worth remembering he was taken on by Ferrari as a safe bet not to challenge Schumacher because they knew he wasn't massively consistent. Ferrari could have chosen a few others at the time that had a better pedigree and a better track record; but they were unlucky to be left out of Ferrari's equations. Massa has been paid a fortune for not being expected to win. That is very very rare in F1. But he was unlucky to be hit in the head by a wayward spring. Very very unlucky (although as Bhaji says: very lucky it didn't kill him). P.S. Is darioproctor giving us a lesson in how to fit and remove a wig? That is the most bizarre post I think I've ever seen in a forum - even a wig forum!
Just one more point on this before I hit the hay. I think that line in some ways emphasizes what I'm trying to say. No matter how hard they work to protect a driver... there is always a risk and no matter how small that risk might be, it could crop up and bite any of them at any time. Hopefully not though.
I'm not sure that stat applies to F1 alone since so many driver competed in other formula at the same time. For instance, Jim Clark didn't die in an F1 race. Okay... now I must sleep. Please stop posting until I wake up
Hahahaha. Yes sir! Time for my own hay right now too! No posting agreement as of now Bhaji OK? It's a deal…
Mwahahahaha. I'm not a part of this agreement which means I will continue to post! 1. Yes, we did go off on a tangent 2. Darioproctor could be proposing a...hair-raising experience? 3. Bhaji, you are right, there will always be a risk in F1 no matter how safe it is made. But you can't prevent drivers from not having accidents, sometimes they are unavoidable (Schumacher/Liuzzi, Abu Dhabi 2010 for example), but the safety reduces the risk. 4. Last but not least, chess would be better with a choking or a light fire.
Or no one has died in current times in F1, thankfully. But the high safety standards don't completely eliminate danger, and in my view one of the biggest dangers that will always be in F1 are freak accidents like drivers being hit by falling debris. The outcome could have been so different for Massa, despite being in a safe car - that just underlines how horrific his crash was. Henry Surtees sadly was not so lucky, killed by a stray wheel by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Thankfully the risk of these incidents happenning is very low, but it is nevertheless still there.
Never rated him that highly myself, I find him a bit hit or miss and was a bit surprised he got so close to the WDC in 2008. Generally makes far too many errors, and this year I've found him to be a very dirty driver, more interested in driving others off the road than actually racing. I did give a smile or 2 when Rosberg gave him a taste of his own medicine in shanghai and when Lewis did same at silverstone. at Australia I felt they gave the wrong guy the penalty a la Button as it seemed to me Massa purposefully drove him off the track.
I like Massa for his ability to drive an F1 car, but to challenge others... all he needs to do is be a tad more aggressive to show that he is capable of race wins. If he doesn't step it up.. well...
