Massa-Alonso: The lion’s pride close to retirement

It is difficult not to acknowledge that clearly, Alonso was coming from very far to initiate his overtaking. It had already been a long time that Massa was stuck behind Sainz’s Toro Rosso, raising the question: Could Massa have overtaken the young Spaniard? After the race, the Brazilian claimed in any case: « To be honest, I was just entering the turn and he (Alonso) dived in and hit my tire, which caused a puncture. All the opportunities I had to finish 5th, which I was expecting, all the chances to overtake Sainz, yes I am extremely disappointed with what happened […] the responsibilities are of course on Alonso’s side. »

If the desire was evidently not lacking, the Brazilian seems to have lost that incisive edge to overtake. Sainz on softs was increasingly struggling with his tires, Massa blocked, Alonso was catching up by a matter of tenths. After a few laps of observation, the Spaniard noticed the different trajectories and the possibility of passing in the winding part of sector 3. When the moment came, Alonso dove to the inside but with too much speed.

Massa is right, Alonso couldn’t completely control his car when attempting to overtake, forcing him to swerve and then veer off. But on the radio, Alonso is also right as he says: « Felipe closed the door, I was already beside him. » In the video from the Williams, Massa saw Alonso but still steered after a very slight swerve, it was he who came into the McLaren, and perhaps this element played in favor of the Spaniard being spared by the race direction.

Let’s analyze more deeply. After several laps stuck behind Sainz, Massa didn’t seem capable of overtaking him except perhaps in the last two laps when Sainz might have been in agony. We can see here that the Brazilian has lost his edge, and despite his desire to show the best results before hanging up his helmet at the end of the season, daring overtakes are no longer in his repertoire.

In the other single-seater, the mentality of the driver is completely different. Just a few months apart in age, both drivers are the same age, but the Spaniard retains that grit and impactful racing style that Massa seems to have lost. Alonso himself stated after the race, after discussing the overtaking of the Toro Rosso: “With Felipe it was different because the Williams is very fast on the straights. Therefore, we had to overtake in the low-speed corners with an aggressive attack, whereas with the Toro Rosso, opening the DRS was enough to get past Carlos.” The Spaniard thus acknowledges the roughness of his maneuver but defends it, and that’s to his credit.

What would Fernando be without his warrior spirit, or rather his samurai soul since his time at McLaren-Honda? The fiery driver maintains a desire for victory and an expressed, perhaps utopian, ambition to win a third world crown more than 10 years after his second one in 2006. While his maneuver raised eyebrows in the Williams camp, it’s worth remembering that when Max Verstappen was criticized for his rough maneuvers, Alonso sided with the Dutchman. Therefore, don’t expect much gentleness on the track from the Spaniard.

Three Grand Prix before the end of his career, Felipe Massa doesn’t have many cards left to play. The ups and downs of F1 seasons saw him as the unfortunate runner-up in 2008 by one point and miraculously surviving his accident in Hungary in 2009 when a spring from Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn struck him in the head. Retained by Ferrari until 2013, the Brazilian inevitably declined in performance, and the comparison with Alonso, who had been promoted to Ferrari since 2010, didn’t improve matters. Over time, the Brazilian fights only for positions within the top 10 in the championship. The performances of the Williams this season don’t help him, but they’re not the only cause. Valtteri Bottas is 32 points ahead in the championship, proof that the Grove team still holds some promise.

Massa has today been pushed out of the top 10 in the championship by none other than Alonso, who is showing all the desire for performance that the Brazilian seems to lack, despite being better equipped in terms of his car when you look at his teammate’s results. We can therefore understand this burst of pride from Felipe Massa, who inevitably sees the end approaching.