Massa Out At Ferrari At End of 2010?

Felipe Massa has been a good soldier at Ferrari during his tenure, but it sure looks like he may be on his way out at the end of the 2012 season. The facts and comments are simply lining up against him.
 
Felipe has had a magnificent run at Ferrari. Remember, he was viewed as basically a temporary seat filler when he came on to replace Rubens Barichello as a teammate to Michael Schumacher. Since then, he has survived the old master and even come within a single point of being a World Champion.


Alas, all indications are the little Brazilians time with the Scuderia is coming to an end. The first issue is his performance. It simply hasn’t been all that good. The difference between his effort and those of his new teammate, Fernando Alonso, are readily apparent for everyone to see. While Massa has scored a health number of points, only the most optimistic Massa fan club member would argue he is a threat for the championship this year.
 
And then we have the conduct and comments of Ferrari itself. The various members of the management team have been effusive in their praise of Alonso with not much said about Massa. In this world of Ferrari, this is pretty much the way a dismissal is handled. One needs only remember what happened with Kimi Raikkonen as Ferrari kept denying the obvious to the bitter end of the 2009 season.
 
The obvious questions are what will happen with Massa and the second seat at Ferrari? All indications point to Robert Kubica making the move to the prancing horse. His performance at Monaco and throughout the season for Renault has more than restored any tarnish to his reputation from the final BMW year. The Pole also happens to be very friendly with Alonso, which will play into the decision.



Some have opined that Mark Webber could fill the seat vacated by Massa. I can’t see how this would happen. Webber is in a great car at Red Bull and leads the point standings. Why would he leave the team? At this point in his career, he has enough money and being second fiddle to Alonso seems an odd choice. Moreover, I can’t see what Ferrari would want him. Webber is having a very nice year, but he hasn’t exactly proved himself a dominant driver over time. Chances of this happening seem very remote.
 
And what of our boy Massa? Well, all indications are he’ll start the slow drop down the competitiveness level that most drivers in F1 seem to go through. He’ll first drop to a second tier team like Renault or Williams where he will wallow for a few years and then drop even lower. It will look much like Jarno Truli going from Renault during its dominant years to Toyota and now to, gulp, Lotus. How unfortunate for Felipe.

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