I really don't understand why people use Massa as some sort of Benchmark. He is perhaps the most up and down driver on the grid and someone that really needs to feel happy and supported to shine. His Ferrari years contained the full spectrum.
Sure, he was inconsistent. But Schumacher was consistently ahead of Massa and by a decent margin too, both in qualifying and races. Massa never really looked anywhere close to him on more than the occasional race weekend.
Raikkonen however was never consistently faster than Massa. Massa was ahead of him in qualifying in both 07 and 08 over two full seasons and in races they were at best tit for tat.
Id be very surprised if Massa suddenly found half a second per lap in one off season, therefore I'd have to conclude that Schumacher was simply faster than Massa... and Raikkonen. This logic is backed up by the Alonso-Massa Alonso-Raikkonen pairings.
Edited by aramos, 28 December 2014 - 05:19.