Can Felipe Massa Break Mercedes' Stranglehold at 2014 Brazilian GP?
When it comes to drivers upping their game for their home race, few on the current grid can match Felipe Massa.
While world champions such as Lewis Hamilton, who in July told the Daily Mail's Jonathan McEvoy that the local fans "spurred me on" to victory in the British Grand Prix, and Fernando Alonso, who after his third win on home turf last year told Ferrari's official website that "the emotion is still very strong," are followed by millions, their relationships with their supporters do not compare to that of Massa's.
Unlike his peers—and, indeed, the majority of athletes and sports teams—it is a two-way street whenever Massa arrives at the Interlagos circuit for a Brazilian Grand Prix.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
He, as you would expect, absorbs the energy of his pilgrims—and they feed off the spirit of his performances.
That sense of unity made Massa, at his peak, an unstoppable force at Interlagos. This was particularly true in 2006, his maiden win at home, in 2007—when he sacrificed victory to hand his then-Ferrari teammate, Kimi Raikkonen, the world championship—and in 2008, where he stood as the champion of the world for around 40 seconds until Hamilton crossed the finish line.
Massa-supporting Brazilians have, over the course of the 33-year-old's F1 career, had the rare privilege of seeing their home hero at his very best and his absolute lowest.
And since the day he lost the title in 2008, Massa and his fans have had little to celebrate or bemoan at Interlagos, with his best result at the track a third-place finish in the 2012 event, where, in truth, any driver could have ended up standing on the podium on an unpredictable afternoon.
Last year's Brazilian Grand Prix was his last as a Ferrari driver, with the Sao Paulo-born racer joining Sebastian Vettel in performing a series of donuts at the end of the race to mark what was at the that point thought to be the end of his time as a front-running performer.
As fate would have it, however, Massa—now of Williams—will this week arrive at Interlagos with his best chance of winning in his hometown since '08.
The Brazilian, having secured pole position for June's Austrian Grand Prix, is one of only two men—three-time grand prix winner Daniel Ricciardo is the other—to puncture the dominance of the Mercedes duo of Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in 2014. He could be the one to watch at the Autodromo Carlos Jose Pace this weekend—but any success will not be achieved on pure pace alone.
The Brazilian Grand Prix, of the remaining two events of the season, is likely to be the most difficult for Williams. The car lacks the downforce achieved by Mercedes, Red Bull and even Ferrari, who currently sit 42 points behind the Grove-based outfit in the race for third in the constructors' standings with 75 points still available.
What Williams lack in downforce, however, they have in straight-line speed—due to their Mercedes power unit and their comparatively skinnier wings—with Massa and Valtteri Bottas, his teammate, certain to be a threat in terms of overtaking on the circuit's two long straights between Turns 3 and 4 and the uphill front stretch.
The changeable weather conditions have helped many an unfancied outfit spring a surprise in a Brazilian Grand Prix—Williams themselves were beneficiaries of the weather gods in 2010 when Nico Hulkenberg, in his first season in F1, secured pole position—but any drop of rain over the race weekend is likely to be to the detriment of the team.
Williams have struggled in wet conditions all season long in the one-lap and racing arenas, under-performing in qualifying most notably in Australia and Malaysia and slipping from decent grid positions in Hungary and Japan.
And with the BBC predicting that Sao Paulo will be hit by heavy showers throughout the weekend, it may become a case of keeping the car on the island—at a venue where aquaplaning is commonplace—and settling for a solid points finish.
Yet the chances of an upset occurring, especially at a stage of the season when the title battle between Hamilton and Rosberg—neither of whom have the finest record at Interlagos—reaches its crescendo and nerves, desperation and therefore mistakes creep into their performances.
Should the Mercedes drivers suffer from a case of the yips in qualifying, Massa could, as he did in Austria, roll back the years to take a popular pole position in front of his home crowd.
But it'd take more than people power for the Brazilian to return to the top step of the podium for the first time since that dramatic day in 2008.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
