Felipe Massa Signs Two Year Extension with Ferrari

It appeared for all the world that Felipe Massa was on the way out of Ferrari. Au contraire! Massa has just signed a two year extension with Ferrari.

Felipe Massa has his critics and, frankly, I happen to be one. He is a very good driver at times, but few would mention him the breath of Hamilton, Alonso or Vettel. That being said, there is not doubt that Massa is a class act and a good team player. His conduct after the heart breaking one point loss of the world championship in his home grand prix proved that and more.


This resigning does raise questions, however, about the direction of Ferrari. Specifically, what is it? The two year contract extension means that both Felipe and Fernando will see their contracts end at the same time in two seasons. This would seem to suggest that the current team has two years to start winning championships, something that seems far from happening.

Ferrari is clearly starting to reposition itself in the Schumacher model. Alonso appears to clearly be the number one driver. The question is how will Felipe Massa react to this? Will he turtle and fade away or produce dynamic results. So far, he hasn’t been very impressive. His points total isn’t horrible, but even his high finishes have been done with very iffy drives.



The Scuderia stands on the edge of cliff of relevancy. If they can’t improve the performance of the car, this will make two seasons that are a right off. That’s a disaster for any top team, but unacceptable for Ferrari. The decision to re-up Felipe brings stability to the team, but it is hard to see how it will really help the team compete with the very strong lineups at McLaren and Red Bull.

Personally, I would’ve signed Robert Kubica.

Lemmy
June 9, 2010

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