Felipe Massa: F1's Most Improved Driver?

After that he was regularly within two or three tenths of Schumacher in qualifying, and followed him home closely in convincing one-two’s for the team at Indianapolis and Hockenheim.  At Turkey he claimed his first pole position and then drove a flawless race the following day to take his maiden victory, on a day when the Schumacher had an off track excursion himself and trailed home in third place behind Alonso. 

The rest of season was much improved and he was often a match for Schumacher, ably assisting his challenge for the title.  Already here was a much improved driver from that even at the start of the year.

Once Kimi Raikkonen joined Ferrari, he was soon expected to stamp his authority on the team, but again Massa raised his game and for the first half of the season at least he had the better of the man regarded as the man with the quickest raw pace in Formula One. 

People seem to forget in the excitement of the three way title battle of 2007 that until three races from the end of the season, Massa was still in the hunt for the title, only seven points behind Raikkonen. 

Admittedly, Raikkonen had the edge on him over the second half of the season and this was expected to carry on into the 2008 season, especially as Massa had struggled so much without the aid of traction control. 

Once again, this seemed the case after the first two races of the season, both of which featured Massa spinning during the race.  But, once again faced with a barrage of criticism from the motor sport media, he dusted himself off and dominated the next race at Bahrain. 

However, surely the most telling sign of his continued improvement came at Monaco, a place he had never seemingly got the hang of and up against two men regarded as Monaco specialists, he took a magnificent pole position for the race, before coming home third in the rain on race day.  Again, conditions he had never previously been particularly well in. 

I am aware of the unfortunate timing of this article, coming just a week after his Silverstone ‘spinfest’.  But if his previous qualities show through again he will again put all of the pressure to the back of his mind and produce another great drive at Hockenheim and all will be forgotten again. 

And then who knows, maybe even the world championship beckons…..

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