Trulli, Sutil and Perez proposed to replace under-fire Massa
21 March, 2012
Felipe Massa had a torrid weekend in Melbourne
Mar.21 (GMM) Felipe Massa’s F1 career with Ferrari appeared to be in deep crisis on Wednesday, as the influential and vocal Italian media lined up multiple candidates to replace him in the team alongside Fernando Alonso.
Felipe with his father in the Albert Park pit garage
Earlier, the weekly Autosprint suggested out-of-work grand prix winner and Italian Jarno Trulli is available to step in immediately to replace the beleaguered Brazilian, whose contract expires this year.
On Wednesday, the authoritative daily La Gazzetta dello Sport said Ferrari is considering dropping a driver mid-season for the first time since Rene Arnoux in 1985.
The newspaper said Ferrari development driver Sergio Perez, who is currently at Sauber, is an option, as is the former Force India driver Adrian Sutil.
A poll at Autosprint’s website, meanwhile, asked readers to nominate a worthy replacement for Massa – Mexican Sergio Perez scored the highest, with 44.7 % of the vote.
Second was Trulli with 27.6%, followed by Rubens Barrichello at 6.6%.
Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa and Sergio Perez
Only 1.3 per cent voted for 30-year-old Massa, who never returned to form following his serious accident in Hungary, mid 2009.
On notice by the famous team and with an expiring contract, the Brazilian driver had a nightmare 2012 opener in Australia.
Mika Salo, the 1999 Ferrari substitute driver, told broadcaster MTV3 that Massa’s performance, “compared to Alonso’s, was very poor”.
The Maranello team appeared to be reacting to the media claims in the form of a report on its official website, acknowledging that its 30-year-old driver “has certainly been the target of criticism” after Melbourne.
Indeed, so poor was Massa’s performance last weekend that Ferrari has agreed to scrap his chassis and replace it with a brand new one for Sepang, despite the one-week turnaround between the flyaway back-to-back races, a move which may also have the political motive of clearing the way for Massa’s dismissal.
“This choice was taken to clear up any doubts about the unusual performance of his car during the weekend at Albert Park,” said the team.
Ferrari also revealed that team boss Stefano Domenicali and technical director Pat Fry returned to Maranello after Australia rather than make the much-shorter trek to Malaysia.
“The fifth position of Fernando Alonso in Australia was a distortion,” argued former Ferrari engineer Joan Villadelprat in the Spanish newspaper El Pais.
“Actually, I see a much harsher reality for them.”
Another Spanish newspaper, AS, reports that Ferrari is pressing the throttle on a ‘plan B’, involving a substantial redesign of the F2012 chassis for China that will involve a new FIA crash test.
Subbed by AJN.
Related posts:
- Ferrari say young driver to replace Massa
- Practice 2: Massa tops as rain spoils day one
- Practice 1: Red Bull fire early warning in Budapest
- Sympathy grows for under fire Massa
- Alonso and Massa relationship cooling
what about villeneuve? lol
or couthard? get all that era’s driver’s back in
Correct, but it is you who is trolling, so please sovle this with yourself.
@Visz963
Trolling only works for so long before it becomes stale
I cant wait to see this happen. Sorry for Massa, but Alonso would be finally a second driver as he should be.
Hey! I got one! What about Rubens Barrichello for the rest of the year? Then Ferrari can snag Webber when his contract runs out, 2013.
Just throwin it out there. . . . . . .
why not Jaime Alguesari?
Trulli is not an option, Trulli is good all around driver, but Ferrari needs someone to bring more out of the car. Trulli was given plenty of chances in decent machinery, hes good in qualifying but just dont have that edge Ferrari driver must have.
Kobayashi would be a perfect option for Ferrari, that guy have been impressive ever since he joined F1. Plus Ferrari would benefit a lot from having a Japaneese driver, marketing wise.
Mika Hakkinen…
Massa to Sauber, Perez to Ferrari.
@John
when did hamilton show alonso up? I know that they were team mates in hamiltons rookie year at mclaren….but they ended up on 109 points a piece that season?
how about kobayashi
In defence of Viz, Alonso did have a driver who showed him up – the rookie Hamilton.
And if you read the story Alonso’s result was a “distortion”. He should have finished lower, but gained at the start while others were bashing each other around.
Massa is in a difficult position because he’s not allowed to race but only to support Alonso. Finding a genuine racer who would accept this condition is going to be difficult.
Although I did find it funny that it isn’t just Hamilton that Massa likes to crash in to. Senna will do too!
Bringing in Trulli would be a good idea. He’s different from 2009 because of simple things: 1. He’s faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar better than both Fisichella and Luca Badoer. 2. He won’t run into everything like a magnet, which means they make less repairs, costs less money. 3. He’s a relaxed, mellow person in the paddock, they need that.
true truilli train an drive bad car well and stick it on the first row
but thos days r gone. Ferrari need fresh face.i like parez massa swap?
no disrepect to truili,ive enjoys his racing over the decade
Why not bring in Trulli, he was the guy that kept saying the Caterham steering system sucked last year! Now look, both Caterhams DNF because of steering issues.
Trulli is capable of scoring in the points he just hasn’t had a great car under him in years. The Ferrari might be struggling but trulli can drive a bad car fairly well…
they should bring kimi back in their garage! he is trolling all other drivers in that marginally slower lotus! And moreover he can very well handle Alonso
get bianchi in. or do a swap with perez.
I like Massa, but I think he is done. His spirit has been broken. I also doubt Trulli is the answer. He was beaten by Heiki and Heiki was not great at Maclaren. (although he is better now) Ferrari have several good options like Sutil, or Jaime A., or even one of the up and coming guys from another team. Ferrari has the resources to get who they need. I think it’s time too. They shouldn’t wait for another year to go by. If they do, they will just get further behind.
Oops. Just realised my typo. I meant driving without a working clutch
to LOL
true 2009 both fissi and that other guy that drove the ferrari car
performed very poor
Agree with two comments below mine.
Also, Trulli replacing Massa would be a nice story for F1. Italian in an Italian team and all that jazz. Although it would be the same as Fisi in 2009, he’s had no time to practice with the car etc and would probably perform worse than Massa.
@viz…
try driving >40 Sepang laps without a non-working clutch in a F1 car ..can you?
@viz
Your such an idiot , man…. Everybody on this sight laughs at you.. Comical.
Massa was a nice driver, but since his accident he was never the same. Ralf Schumacher story. Time to let go.
I wish Alonso finally gets a teammate who shows what an insignificant driver Alonso is. Even some of the rookies would beat him instantly.