Who will be driving alongside Alonso at Ferrari next season?

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Who will be in the second Ferrari?

  • Felipe Massa

  • Nico Hulkenberg

  • Paul di Resta

  • Michael Schumacher

  • Heikki Kovalainen

  • Other (please specify)

Results are only viewable after voting.
Forza Ferrari said:
Felipe Massa expected to stay at Ferrari for 2013 - Benson



In the article Benson sounds very confident, as you probably would be when a driver ends a 2 year podium drought - but I think he's missed a couple of things:


  • First of all Alonso wasn't so impressed by Massa's race: "Well, it’s a bit because of the coincidences in the race that Felipe is second. Yesterday we qualified sixth and eleventh. We have had the same car for six races, without adding any new bits, and it’s a bit thanks to the circumstances...Felipe did a perfect race, driving well, but there are cars which are a lot faster making a mistake after another and that has helped Felipe". Surely the team would have the same opinion.
  • Second thing is that Hulkenburg had a really strong race. He had better race pace than Hamilton and Raikkkonen and if he were able to overtake them, he would have finished 5th. Unfortunately he spent the entire race being held up by them - but despite this he finished over 30 seconds ahead of the guy who beat Seb in F3.
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Alonso is right - although traffic and pit stops are part of racing - if it wasnt for the combination of new soft tyres (due to not make Q3) and Kobi and Button getting caught with Ricardo who seemed not to understand that fighting tooth and nail (even when boxing that lap) was only slowing him down, it was likely that Massa would have only have finished fourth. In addition, if the 1st corner incident didnt happen, then he would have best been in 8th because at that stage Kimi, Alonso, and webber would have been ahead of him on track aswell as Perez who later binned it. The only drivers he would ahve probably beat out of the top 10 was Lewis (set up issues) and Di Resta (clutch issues on start line). However, Alonso has made a season out of capatalising on others mistakes, so I think its harsh to devalue Massa's drive in anyway!
 
SilverArrow said:
Alonso is still downplaying the Ferrari still eh? Nothing new there...
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If you find the average pole to Alonso time of this year, not including wet/damage qualifyings, i'm sure you'll find the gap is atleast half a second, maybe even close to a second. How can anyone say that it's good enough for wins in the dry? Like he said on Friday, if he wins the championship, it's a miracle in that ****.
 
No it's not, he is still ahead, Ferrari have had an up and down year, they might have updates before the end of the season that work well.
 
Fred! said:
If you find the average pole to Alonso time of this year, not including wet/damage qualifyings, i'm sure you'll find the gap is atleast half a second, maybe even close to a second. How can anyone say that it's good enough for wins in the dry? Like he said on Friday, if he wins the championship, it's a miracle in that ****.
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And at the start of the season the Red bulls were off the pace to the front as well. Yet RBR have the best (duo) of drivers on the grid so they both still scored solid points all the time. Seb didn't get any excuses of having a dog of a car when it was obvious the whole car was a mess with the amount of changes they made to the rear all the way up to Monaco. It was an F spec at that point with the amount of changes they made and then the performances started to come back.

Just because Massa sucked like donkey balls all the way up until now doesn't actually give valid proof Alonso was ever driving a worse car than what Seb and Webber got at Australia. Maybe both RB drivers outperformed their tractors more than Alonso did maybe? But again the media likes to play up stories to direct the public opinion with their bias on who they think has a **** car and who doesn't. Seems the media are scared to even question Alonso's actually ability as it might cost their worthless career and fear of ridicule from the public, almost like a middle eastern country burning a few flags.

I have stomached enough of the mind games of Ferrari and Fernando that I have becoming increasingly bored of hearing it to the point that I think it was a smokescreen from the very start of the euro tour. Trying to make out Alonso is "unbeatable" and "nobody" can match his talent to put some doubt into Seb's head in particular. Ferrari had Mugello and the young drivers test to go crazy with and somehow it still wasn't enough for them, something else has got to give and they have used every excuse in the book to keep the pressure off Alonso and now other people, journalists, other drivers and teams in particular are starting to notice that the Ferrari isn't as bad as they like to make out.

I want to see somebody else in that Ferrari beside Alonso, with equal treatment as well. I wish to replace Massa with either: (Kimi, Seb, Webber, Schumacher, Rosberg Lewis, Button, Perez.) and then we would see how "bad" that Ferrari really was, as I'm REALLY! starting to think it was never that bad in the first place...
 
A few interesting things in here:

Former Ferrari driver Gerhard Berger thinks the great Italian team should drop Felipe Massa.

However, after the Brazilian at Suzuka finally returned to the podium after a two-year absence, all the signs are that Ferrari is set to sign his 2013 contract.

Austrian Berger is perplexed.

“This makes no sense,” he told Germany’s Auto Bild. “It’s never just about one race.

“I would put Hulkenberg or di Resta in his place. They are young and fast — exactly what Ferrari needs to fight for the constructors’ title,” added Berger.

Ferrari apparently does not agree.

One team insider told Auto Motor und Sport: “Among the young guys we see nobody about whom we can say ‘We must have him’.”

Indeed, Massa, 31, is putting out the message that his future is now safe.

“The conversation we have been having until now has been that it (a new contract) should happen,” he told Portuguese-language media at Suzuka on Sunday.

“I’m hoping it will be confirmed as soon as possible.”

Team boss Stefano Domenicali is also on message: “We will make an announcement soon,” he is quoted by Italy’s La Stampa.

If and when the news is confirmed, it will mean the seats at all of the top teams are essentially in place, with the rest of the 2013 grid to then follow suit.

Ferrari-powered Sauber, tipped to re-sign Japanese Kamui Kobayashi after his hugely-popular Suzuka podium, has announced it will settle its 2013 lineup before November’s finale.

And chief executive Monisha Kaltenborn also hinted about Massa’s future, suggesting speculation the Brazilian could return to Sauber if he is dropped by Ferrari is wide of the mark.

“It (Sauber’s decision) has, for a change, nothing to do with Ferrari,” she is quoted by the Sun.

Ferrari is expected to announce the Massa news either immediately before or immediately after this weekend’s Korean grand prix.

“This second place (in Japan) is a very important result in a decisive moment for him,” Domenicali is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.

Asked if that means Massa is staying in 2013, he added: “Let’s not take a second step before we’ve taken the first.”
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Brazilian media say that Massa has signed with Ferrari and the announcement will be on Tuesday. Ferrari have denied it on twitter.
 
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