Asked if he expected support should he be in a better position to win the Championship, Massa replied: "If it is necessary, yes.


"I did it last year, and because of the job I did my team-mate was Champion.


"If it is necessary, he should help. He is a very fair guy, as I am too. That is part of our job."


http://www.planet-f1.com/story/0,18954,3213_4102018,00.html

For sure Kimi will help, except if he sees a chance to win it by himself.

If both of them have the chance to win it in last race, I dont think Kimi will help Massa just because Massa helped last year.

Why on earth would he, if his chanche is just as big to win it? I see Räikkönen as quicker by a good margin if they succeed getting the car to his liking. But Massa is formidable and certainly look like the stronger contender currently.

if it happens in case of sucesss with two consecutive WDCs subsequently Ferrari having both drivers as last champions, this double Massa-Kimi will be looked as one of the most sucessfull teammates in these last years, no fights out-track , good relationship , the team trusting in them , looking this way it's a very nice feedback ,tbh Scuderia will just prove to be right when made this line-up choice

Ferrari will lose the world championship due to the lack of team orders, just as McLaren lost it last year.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing, and I like if team mates are allowed to race against each other, but it's just shows why some team chiefs think that having a No.1 driver is essential.

Keywords being "if it is necessary", which is arguably just common sense.

Should Kimi win on sunday all this talk is out the window. It's that close. Obviously a lot is pointing to the possibility that Felipe will score more points but let's wait until sunday. I have my opinion clear since the last race but a lot can still happen. Kimi is not out of it. Make no mistake about it.

I said something similar on the Massa thread.. Their best chance to the WDC is to support Massa starting now.

Way too early for all this support talks. Just one DNF, and Massa will find himself in the supporting role again.

If Massa DNF and Kimi does not have a good race nothing is gained.. - So basically Kimi needs to win and Massa to DNF and still the point gap would only be 3 points in Kimi's favor.., which is nothing to decide Massa has to play the supporting role.

Of course Kimi will help FM if hes mathematically out of WDC fight.

The interesting thing would be to see what happens if, let's say, Kimi DNF in Belgium and FM wins with LH second. Then it would be LH 78, FM 74, Kimi 57 in the WDC with still another 50 pts to fight over.

In such a case Kimi's still in the fight mathematically, but 21 points off LH. Would that be enough for Ferrari to support FM? I think so, but we'll see how Kimi would react in such a scenario if it happens. I think he would do what Ferrari tells him in that case, although he mightn't like it!

This is why Spa is such an important GP for Kimi, his WDC challenge could end here.

Q: (Thomas Richtr - TV Nova) Stefano, it seems that Felipe and Kimi are fighting each other. Is this no longer good for Ferrari's prospects to challenge Lewis Hamilton at the front. Would you agree?

SD: No, of course not. I think it is better to have two strong cars rather than one. For sure we will have maybe to take a decision as we did for example last year at a certain moment of the season in order to make sure that what you said is not happening. But at the moment I don't think so. If you look at all the races that we have done there was no situation where one of our drivers took points off the other, not at all.

I don't remember a single race with the exception of China last year, when Kimi was significantly better than his teammate. At that race the difference was 12 seconds in Raikkonen's favour.

Stuff like Melbourne, Silverstone, Hungaroring 2007 doesn't really count since Massa had problems or made an error. I wonder what could have been the difference between them in Canada this year under normal circumstances.

All in all, I see no proofs that Kimi is better by a good margin, when the setup is OK.

Kimi would have beaten him in Canada anyways since Felipe qualified poorly there.

There were no "team orders" at Ferrari last year either before Massa was mathematically eliminated and still Kimi won.

i think Domenicalli's spot on in this case, when a driver is mathematically out of the championship he can be asked to support, if not then they race and make the best that they can on 'any given Sunday'

go on Felipe ;) he's turned into my second favourite driver, or am i just hedging my bets?

notice how he did not say "mathematically out" , he said "certain point in the season".. To me this certain trigger last year was Monza.. This year could be Spa..

Please remind how many more points you get from being 15 seconds instead of 5 seconds before your teammate at the finish line?



Gee so basically nothing counts because Massa made many errors last year.



What a surprise!

Not at this moment as the difference is so negligible.

There was nothing to suggest Kimi was somehow favoured over Massa except at the Brazilian GP.

I don´t understand this thread. Of course Kimi will play #2, if necessary.

The point of this thread is:

1) Journalist asks Massa if he expects support should he be in a better position to win the title.

2) Massa answers "if necessary, yes".

3) Journalist (the same who posed the question or other one, doesn't matter) comes with the headline: "Massa: It's Kimi's turn to support me"

4) Someone reads that sensationalist headline and opens a thread with it.

There's no history here. Should have Massa said: "No, I expect Kimi to fight against me like every other driver, and even if I arrive at the last race with an 11-point lead over him. In fact, I expect him to push me out of the road if he feels so"?. Of course not.

My gut feeling is Monza again...don't know why....

Well let's do the maths.

If Ferrari score a 1-2 at Spa, Massa winning:

Massa 74
Kimi 65

Diff: 9 points. 5 rounds to go.

Say Ferrari 1-2 Monza, Massa winning yet again:

Massa 84
Kimi 73

Diff: 11 points


That's not a huge margin. If Massa DNF's Japan for example, Kimi is right back in it. If Massa does beat Kimi in the next two GP, then it may make sense to back Massa.. but in a down to the wire fight.. I'm not so sure Massa has the experience.. he may crack.

I ask you again, as I did in another thread without having an answer though, where were you before previous GP at Valencia? Kimi was leading in points and if I recall correctly, you were not calling for Ferrari backing Kimi with all they got, were you? Why such a change after Kimi had mechanical DNF and Massa won? It might happen that in Spa Kimi wins and Massa DNFs due to mec. failure. Would you then call for immediate backing for Kimi because he is ahead in points? Oh, hang on... I see. You are a true Kimi hater, who tries to paint himself as Felipe fan... Yes, it´s all very clear now, Ferrari should back Massa now. period.

If I was the team boss I would not have considered it prior to Valencia due to Massa's current form.. The last three races from Kimi would persuade me to put all my eggs on Massa's basket now.. Fair enough? Everyone understands that taking points from each other would favor Lewis.. If all that matters to me was the WDC (since I am not tifosi and I don't really care for WCC ) the most efficient way to win the title is to favor one driver right now.. I would go after the one who is in better form... is that simple really.

The problem in that is this: Massa isn´t better Ferrari driver in terms of pure talent/pace/race-craft department. He has had few better races than Kimi in a row, but that´s mainly because Kimi has issues with setting up his car, especially for qual laps. But since that is only a matter of finding a solution for Kimi´s qual problems - as opposed to Schumacher/Barrichello or Schumacher/Irvine pairings, where the difference in level of talent was obvious - it would not make sense at all to put all eggs in one basket yet. Imagine if Kimi finds solution for his problems with car and Massa has a DNF or two? It would be like 99 all over again, when Michael who was faster by mile played second fiddle to Irvine. You see, that´s why you are not an F1 team boss, you can´t just go with your eyes wide shut behind your less talented driver, just because he has had few races going his way.

I do agree Kimi has more talent but not in all aspects as you seem to indicate. His consistency and mental strenght is perhaps what puts him apart - racecraft and pace can be Matched by another driver if he finds the sweet spot with the setup of the car. You acknowledge he has setup issues, but you assume that he will solve them and discard Massa's potential to improve in his consistency dept. The examples you present are useless since Irvine and Rubens were most of the time slower and not as good qualifiers as Shumi. Massa has been equally fast to kimi and a better qualifier. Massa has the momentum going which is also very important.

Got a better one for you.


If Ferrari score 1-2 with Lewis third for spa, monza and singapore then it will look like this.

Kimi. 87
Massa 88
Hamilton 88

with 3 rounds to go.

Its funny but people forget that if Kimi had not been taken out at Canada and had not blown up last race, he'd ahead of Massa and close to Hamilton.


SO LETS ALL BLAME HAMILTON woooooooooooooooo

It's funny that you forget that if it wasn't for Canada, Craneboy wouldn't have got the penalty in France.
Kimi would have got +2 on him in Canada and +2 in France.
Thanks to the Canada incident Kimi got +8 on him in France.
In the end it actually benefited Massa AND Kimi.

It's funny that you mention Kimi blowing up in the last race but forget Massa lost 10 points in Hungary.

not talking about Massa now are we

Of course he wouldnt, but I think some people here think he should

And that about sums it up

Kimi's already responded to this comment from Felipe. He said he'd be happy to support Massa once it's mathmatically impossible for him (Kimi) to win the WDC.

Bearing in mind how many points behind he was last season with only three races to go, I wouldn't be throwing the might of Ferrari behind Flip just yet.

personally I think what Massa says is pretty much true - Kimi should support him IF he's got the best change to win the championship - but I think it's still to early as the points difference isn't too great yet - but in about 2 races it should be pretty clear who's gonna support who.

well, if kimi gets a couple more points from next races it will not be clear in long time

..and it got even worse than my example above!

Kimi dnf, meaning the WDC is LH 80, FM 72, and KR still on 57. 23 points is too tough to expect him to close, LH surely won't go off china pitentry again or similar.

Kimi's WDC challenge is over I'm afraid, FM must be given preferential treatment from now on if needed.

I agree.

Alright then. Massa Ferrari #1 driver for a few races now.

The gap is huge and Kimi has no realistic chance.

Don't think it will change much of anything, personally, unless Kimi can be used to block in a freak moment of a race.

1 Lewis Hamilton 80
2 Felipe Massa 72
3 Robert Kubica 58
4 Kimi Räikkönen 57

Ha, he is even behind Kubica now.

It is Kimi's turn now, the WDC is all over for him.

Lewis Hamilton will be the WDC of 2008.

Massa just lacks the fighting spirit that Lewis and Kimi has. If Massa qualifies behind Lewis he is not able to make ground. McLaren seems to be so fast now, especially in rainy conditions that Lewis should have it in the bag, unless he chokes like last year. He has learned from last year though and this time he has Heikki backing him as well. Ferrari might get the WCC though.

That's nonesense. Hamilton was on pole at Hungaroring, not Massa.

But still one dnf can change all.



If it had not rained, Hamilton would of been criticised for losing the race from his early spin, Kimi would of kept his title alive. The problem is too much lingers on the hopes of one wrong doing, and the points system does not reward risk over caution as much as it used too.

The threat of rain was always going to be the suspense, if Kimi had any luck this year, he probabley needed it to not rain towards the end, however it didn't work out this year, it didn't work out for him, but for alot of the race, he showed his classic speed on a drivers track, qualifying still hasn't worked for him, but maybe he can take a breather now and relax, pressure off, and hope to re-energise himself for the slick tyre year of 2009 which he should work towards as. For the remaining races, his support will be there, but Massa will have to be faster then Hamilton on the remaining tracks and finish ahead, which is why Hamilton likely has it in the bag.

Erm, have you seen Hungary? The first lap? Or the fantastic passes he made in Canada after the team messing up his pitstop startegy? I think Massa has shown more fighting spirit this year than Kimi in the last two seasons all together.

He is 8 points off Hamilton, with a blown engine like in Hungary, with messed up Ferrari strategies like in Canada. Hamilton hasn't had a DNF because of technical problems in 2008 (or in 2007, for that matter) yet.

Indeed utter crap saying massa hasnt shown fighting spirit. All support should be with him now, i see a lot of mclaren and hamilton fans already celebrating but i think massa will give hamilton a real run for his money.

Don't count out felipe.

Raikonnen should help him. He is paid £70,000 a DAY by Ferrari to do exactly as the team tells him to do.

No worries, Massa has already done that lots of times this year.. ... Hungary/Valencia/Turkey/Barcelona/Bahrein..

Post Lewis' penalty, it is definitely Kimi's job to support him.

Of course Kimi can't help if Felipe is slower and runs behind him and Lewis. Best thing Kimi can do for him is finish 2nd in races and Felipe has to win.

Today Massa completely gave up in the last laps and then moaned a bit in the PC about fair and hard driving by Kimi. To add, he was lacking speed the the whole race.

Going away from this with 10 points is very very lucky but it wasn't because of his driving or fighting spirit...