If Kimi Raikkonen is the grumpiest driver in Formula One, lewis Hamilton the naturally quickest and Jenson Button the English charmer, then the most resilient is Felipe Massa.
And what if the Brazilian who came within a whisker of winning the world title in 2008 and then of possibly losing his life in 2009 proves this year that he is once again championship material, back to his best after three ho-hum seasonsIJ
How will his team, Ferrari, reactIJ If Massa’s quick pace in the first two races continues this weekend at the Chinese Grand Prix and beyond, would he be allowed to take Ferrari’s No. 1 spot from its star, two-time world champion Fernando AlonsoIJ In 11seasons and 200 Grand Prix, no teammate of Alonso’s has ever out-qualified him for five consecutive races. Massa would become the first if he qualifies quicker than Alonso on Saturday in Shanghai, having also gone faster than the Spaniard in Australia and Malaysia and in the final two races last season, in the United States and Brazil. (For the record: Jarno Trulli, who was Alonso’s teammate at Renault, and Hamilton at Mclaren in 2007, out-qualified him at four consecutive races).
To which one could legitimately respond: “So whatIJ” Qualifying well loses its importance if not followed by a strong drive and actual points in the race on Sunday. Still, Massa’s recent qualifying performances and the fact that he has four points more than Alonso going into the third of 19 races this season both suggest one thing: Massa has his mojo back.
“He was very confident from the end of last year, because the results he had in the last two Grand Prix made him very, very confident. He knew he would start 2013 very, very strong,” said Dino Altmann, the chief medical officer at Massa’s home race, the Brazilian Grand Prix, and his family doctor. Altmann, speaking in a phone interview from Brazil, said he exchanged messages with Massa after he placed fourth in Australia and fifth in Malaysia and last saw him earlier this year, before pre-season testing. “He told me that the car this year is really very friendly to him and he’s very happy with all the developments,” Altmann said. “last year, he began the year working psychologically to become stronger and the result came in the middle of the year. So from them on we could see Felipe coming to his best at the end of the year and I think (that) changed everything and he’s now very, very confident. If you talk to him, you can really remark that it’s a different Felipe than he was last year or the previous years.”
Two events, in particular, mark out Massa as a survivor - one which he can’t remember and the other which must have felt like a gut-punch. The first was the 2009 crash, when a heavy spring detached from a car in front of him in qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix and thumped at high speed into Massa’s helmet, concussing him and fracturing his skull. Massa has said he can’t actually recall what happened — perhaps a blessing because the footage on YouTube still sends shivers down the spine.