Felipe Massa, a driver facing rumors

Thus, a change in the schedule of the Paulista turns into a crisis meeting about his fate. Stefano Domenicali, director of the Ferrari team, wants to clear up any misunderstandings: « Felipe has changed his plans and instead of going home to see his family in Brazil, he will be in Maranello [today] to work with the engineers to calmly analyze everything that happened during these two races, and to try to understand why he has not been able to achieve the performances he is capable of. This is the right spirit and we are here, ready to help him ».

What better way, therefore, than a dive into a not-so-distant past, to try to soothe the hearts of Brazilians and their supporters: « I remember very well that four years ago, in fact just after a Malaysian Grand Prix won for us by Kimi Räikkönen, Felipe was more or less in the same situation as today. The newspapers were calling for his immediate replacement and he reacted in the best possible way, with the support of the team, by winning two of the next three races ».

We remember how that season (2008, editor’s note) ended, with the Brazilian as world champion, even if it was just for a few seconds, while we were winning our sixth constructors’ title. Felipe Massa indeed missed the title by just one point against Lewis Hamilton, whose overtaking of Timo Glock in the last corner of the last lap of the Brazilian Grand Prix allowed him to gather the necessary points for his victory. This race is also the last one won by Massa, who the following year suffered both from the struggles of an F60 outpaced by the Brawn and Red Bull teams and from the Hungaroring accident, which prematurely ended his season.

Since his return, Felipe Massa has climbed the podium five times, each time during the 2010 season. Meanwhile, his teammate, Fernando Alonso, was fighting for the title until the last race in Abu Dhabi, at the end of a year marked by the German Grand Prix in Hockenheim, where on orders from Scuderia, the 2008 world vice-champion had to give up the first place to his teammate, who was better placed in the championship. In 2011, Ferrari was never able to compete with Red Bull and McLaren, securing only one victory at Silverstone through the Spanish double world champion.

After only two races in 2012, Massa already has to face another rumor, that of his possible replacement during the season by Sergio Pérez, who finished second in Malaysia and is a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy. Once again, it’s the support of the Italian team that Stefano Domenicali wants to show: “It’s a particularly difficult moment for him because he can’t get the best out of a car that is, objectively, very hard to drive. We have an obligation to stay by his side, as must be done in a close-knit team.” This solidarity is also conveyed by Fernando Alonso: “We are a very strong team, very united, and I see no possibility of not racing alongside Felipe. I think that when we have a normal race, and hopefully the car improves, Felipe and I should be on the podium together. That’s the goal for the rest of the season.”

Faced with a teammate who monopolizes attention and a strong-performing Sergio Pérez driving a Sauber, the native of Sao Paulo is under increasing media pressure; a situation that sharpens opinions and invigorates the writers. The latest rumor comes from Brazilian blogger Livio Oricchio, who claims that Ferrari is using Massa as a test driver. To date, there is no evidence to support this claim.