Ferrari’s Felipe Massa – don’t dwell on defeat
Now that the dust has settled over the 2010 Formula One season, where Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull took the drivers’ championship at the final Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi on Sunday November 12, beating frontrunner Fernando Alonso, Ferrari has had a chance to
reflect.
Although extremely disappointed, Felipe Massa said that Ferrari needs to put the angst of losing the world championship out of its mind and ready itself to take the best position for 2011.
"We need to think about next year now, we need to concentrate," Massa said. "For sure we are going to hear many things, but I think that is not the most important thing.”
Massa acknowledged that while he and his team were frustrated by the results of Abu Dhabi, they need to start preparing themselves afresh.
"Most important is to concentrate to be strong in 2011, and we are going to test the Pirelli tyres so I hope we can learn straight away. That is the right direction - to concentrate next year and try to do even a stronger championship than we did this year."
However, despite the wisdom of Massa’s forward-thinking philosophy, even he was unable to practice what he preached. A note of troubled bitterness crept into the F1 racer’s attempt to be Zen when he admitted that Ferrari's strategy - in pitting both cars
early in the race in response to Mark Webber's stop - "ruined" the team's race.
"We had a safety car, but we thought it was a bit too early to stop," Massa said. "We saw Webber stopping pretty soon, then we took the decision to stop. Then this ruined everything until the end because we were not able to pass."
Trying to shed the antipathy of his team’s poor strategy is proving a little easier said than done. In addition to dealing with the blunders of his team, Massa also has his own personal regrets about the 2010 campaign.
"It was not a great season for sure," he said. "I had a lot of issues, especially to prepare the tyres for the qualifying. That was the main issue I had all season. It is something that it was really a problem this year.”
Ultimately, while the Ferrari team licks its proverbial wounds, it faces that fundamental existential question that plagues us all: will the regrets of the past impinge upon the future, or will the glory of the future redeem the frustrations of the past?
Regarding Ferrari’s answer, we await the 2011 season.
Tags: