Ferrari’s Brazilian: just lucky to be in a good car?
Massa had a horror show at Silverstone. He spun five times and finished last. With no traction control to save his ass, he proved that he is one of the worst drivers in the wet; Ferrari’s set-up didn’t help either of their drivers, but Massa looked amatuerish.
Former F1 driver Anthony Davidson reportedly called Massa “useless” during his co-commentary for BBC radio, and it’s clear that many people in the sport believe that Massa is very lucky to have a drive for a top team. In the Chequered Flag podcast, Davidson also revealed how Jacques Villeneuve used to wait until Massa (and Takuma Sato) had gone out on the track before he went out in qualifying - purely because he thought Massa was a dangerous and unpredictable driver.
Ferrari test driver leads the way after first day in Spain
Ferrari test driver Luca Badoer (pictured), filling in for Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, set the fastest time on the first day of testing at Barcelona.
The 37-year-old Italian, a test driver at Maranello for almost a decade, set the pace early in the morning and held the top spot throughout the day - rain in the afternoon prevented any of the other drivers from setting a serious time.
Ferrari has decided not to debut its innovative new “nose with the hole” (pictured above) at the Turkish GP this weekend. Istanbul is a low-downforce track, so despite the nose’s success in testing at the Circuit de Catalunya last month, we’ll have to wait to see how it fares in a real race. [Autosport]
Marco Andretti fastest in first practice session for this weekend’s Indy 500 – in an Indiana Jones-themed car. Indytastic. [IndyCar]
We knew things were bad when Super Aguri sent driver Anthony Davidson out on a tandem. Now comes the news that the under-powered, under-financed team has withdrawn from F1 with immediate effect; an 11th-hour rescue package by German auto company Weigl Group was not enough to keep them racing at the back of the grid.
DC fined, then told to “shut up” by Super Aguri backmarker
The broad-chinned Scot is having something of a season horribilis, so far at least. He has yet to score a single point in four grands prix for Red Bull, prompting many people to say “You’re a bit crap these days, hang up your racing gloves”, or words to that effect. He looks especially bad when team-mate Mark Webber is going round and round considerably faster than him.
On top of that, he has just been told to “shut up” by fellow Brit Anthony Davidson, who drives for Super Aguri. DC complained about the Honda-powered strugglers this week, calling them “Stupid Aguri” (clever, Dave, like your work).
