A.Wayne

Piquet tips Massa to dominate Raikkonen

By Michele Lostia and Pablo Elizalde Friday, April 27th 2007, 09:52 GMT

Former world champion Nelson Piquet believes Felipe Massa is the favourite of the Ferrari drivers to win this year's championship.

Massa is currently five points behind teammate Kimi Raikkonen after the first three races of the season, but the Brazilian has showed better speed than the Finn in qualifying, something that Piquet reckons makes Massa the favourite.

Massa and Raikkonen have won one race each, but Massa has been on pole in the last two races, with the Finn admitting he must improve his qualifying form if he wants to fight for race wins all the time.

"Before the start of the championship I didn't know what the difference in speed was going to be between Massa and Raikkonen," Piquet told Autosprint magazine.

"Now I have no doubt: despite being behind in the points, Felipe Massa is the favourite for a very logical reason.

"It's simply that Massa is always faster in qualifying than Raikkonen, and nowadays GPs are won at the first corner. The tyres are the same, you don't have a day when the Michelins are better anymore, cars don't break down, and overtaking is almost impossible.

"So, when does a driver build a win by doing 90% of the job? It's at the start and at the first corner. With Massa more efficient in qualifying, I don't see how Raikkonen can beat him. If Ferrari maintains the current technical advantage, obviously the fight will be between Massa and Raikkonen.

"The GPs and the championship will be won on Saturdays and Raikkonen at the moment has shown to be unable to reach Massa's levels of speed. It looks to me like a rather simple situation," the three-time champion added.

Piquet also believes Massa has all the ingredients to be champion this year.

"It doesn't happen often for a driver to have a car as dominant as the Ferrari is at the moment," Piquet added.

"Massa must keep on doing what he's doing. He has the talent and the strength to end up the winner, he's certainly not another Rubens Barrichello. We are talking about drivers, personalities and characters totally different."

Despite Ferrari's strong start to the season, Piquet reckons their current line-up is no match for Michael Schumacher, who retired from the sport at the end of last season.

"Neither Massa nor Raikkonen are worth a Micheal Schumacher, even though the latter made a lot of mistakes in his last two years. Today the only driver in F1 that never makes mistakes and that makes the most of every chance is Fernando Alonso, but Massa is technically in the position to beat him.

"Everyone talks about Massa's past mistakes, but why doesn't anyone remember the ones made by Raikkonen at McLaren?"




Ahhh Yes , Finn please set the thermostat at 30deg, i liked mine chilled

Larry Herman

Yeah, but that's why we line them up and race them, because the pundits are not nearly as right as they would like you to think they are.

A.Wayne

Yep, i'm already strapped in ! but thirsty

Geo

Especially Piquet and Lauda.

multi21

Before the season began, I had said that it would take Kimi 1/2 season to catch up with Massa. Not because he isn't faster, it's because Massa has been in the Ferrari camp as a test driver and race driver. He also knows the Bridgestone tires. Furthermore, Schumacher knew he was going to retire last year way before the announcement at Monza, so there was no reason for Schumacher to withhold any technical data or insight he may have on the car or personnel.

Kimi's is leading this year in points, so far, only because Massa's car broke down in Australia. Otherwise, Massa has been the faster of the two.

Did Massa learn from his mistakes in Malaysia? It would seem he did based on his last performance in Bahrain, but before the 1st corner, I saw him swing wide again. Afterward, Hamilton told the media he knew Massa would be hell bent on being P1 into the first turn, perhaps at the risk of contact and he didn't want that to happen and would rather play it safe.

The quote posted above is a little inaccurate in my opinion. The Ferrari's are not that far ahead of the McLaren's. It's not as cut and dry as it appears. IF the Ferrari's are ahead, whether it be Massa or Kimi, they run well. But when behind, they don't like being in the turbulence of the car ahead.

Massa may be faster right now, but he did not impress or make any serious threat to Heidfeld after going off in Malaysia. He basically was looking at the rear wing of the BMW for 50 odd laps.

M758

Remember though this is the same BMW that passed Alonso out the outside in Bahrain. So being stuck behind Heidfeld for 50 laps may seem like a bad thing last year, but clear the BMW's are alot faster this year. Point is that it may not have been a result of Massa's lack of speed, but more a result of BMW's new found speed.

So far this year Ferrari and McLaren are the top dogs. In 3 out of the 4 drivers are in new cars this year and none have established themselves as clear team number 1's. BMW is goind to be intertesting. They probably can't win WDC or constructor's, but could very easily play spoiler to Ferrari or McLaren and with some luck might even pull of a win or two.

Sadly it appears Renaut, Honda, Williams, Toyota and Red Bull are all on the outside lookig in and their big struggles wil be just to make Q3 qualfing and scraping for the last couple points each race.

A.Wayne

Gents,

As of the last 3 races , the ferrari is still the best car on the track, There speed VS fuel load is superior to the others , if not for driver's error they would have won all races todate.
The real season really starts in spain the first european race will set the tone , although Alonso has the home track advantage , We will see who are the pretenders ...

multi21

The Ferrari's are better on the longer runs, but in essence, Pinquet said the races will be won by who qualified better. The McLaren's are very very good on their golden laps. Kimi needs to qualify with a lighter load and if he can get to the first corner ahead of everyone, he's going to have to stretch a lead to make it work.

Regardless, we're all talking about ancient history. There will be a lot of aero tweeks going into the European part of the season.

chris walrod

Plus Kimi isnt used to going full race distances

Larry Herman

AC coupe

OTOH it's not surprising a Brazilian would tip a Brazilian to be tops in an article written by brazilian writers!..

jrok

Man, that's just cold... but still funny. McL seem to have gotten thier shizzle together over the off season and BMW and quick Nick seem to really be making great strides with thier car.

chris walrod

Yeah, I know, pretty tasteless. Just poking some fun. I dont like seeing DNF's as a result of 'mechanicals' -- if a driver DNF's because of a shunt, why thats part of the game. I do hope that McLaren will remain reliable this year, as well as others. It just makes the racing that much better!

A.Wayne

LOL

ac coupe wrote:
OTOH it's not surprising a Brazilian would tip a Brazilian to be tops in an article written by brazilian writers!..


Not so fast Nelson Piquet is not one for compliments , especially to other Brazilians , read his comments over the years on Reuben, Senna etc...

A.Wayne

Who will be faster in spain Kimi or Massa!