1,000 Greatest Drivers: Felipe Massa
His 2007 AND 2008 are both better than you think.
Yeah, I have a pretty big assignment at work right now, so I put this one off a little bit. Massa is definitely one I have to handle at least a little sensitively given the arguments that the 2008 title was stolen from him due to Crashgate. I think I agree with this, and as I’ve already said, I think Timo Glock gets too much shit. I understand why someone might argue Lewis Hamilton had the stronger performance since he was only in his second year and the Ferrari seemed to be faster than the McLaren, but I think Massa was pretty clearly better and my model agrees. Massa ranked third in my open wheel model for 2008 behind only Sebastian Vettel (whose sweep of Sébastien Bourdais ended up being worth more than Massa’s, more marginal defeat of Kimi Räikkönen when Bourdais isn’t that far behind Räikkönen in my model) and Scott Dixon (who dominated the IndyCar season). Obviously, Bourdais just failed to adapt to the F1 cars so I’m not going to say Vettel had the better performance, even though his stellar performances certainly foreshadowed his future.
But Massa actually beat Räikkönen worse (8-3) than Hamilton beat Heikki Kovalainen (8-5). Now, I think Kovalainen is underrated, but he’s not the Finn anyone will pick first. As a result, Massa’s rating in my model was .430, way higher than Hamilton’s .236. He also led eight of the 14 statistical categories I track in 2008 (natural races led: 8, lead change record: 3-1, wins: 6, TNL/lead shares/races with the most lead shares: 8, CRL: 5.75, races with the most laps led: 5), while Hamilton only led three categories (overtake record: 34-6, races with the most laps led: 5, tied with Massa, and poles: 7). I don’t even think this is all that close, and moreover, Massa actually led 9 of the 14 statistical categories I track as well, even though Räikkönen, Hamilton, and Fernando Alonso stole all the headlines. He is massively underrated now and it really sucks that he had eight races with an on-track pass for the lead and only won one of them. I can’t think of many records more underrated than that even discounting the injury and the stolen championship. Still, I definitely don’t blame Hamilton for it anymore than I blame Glock for it. This is all on Renault.
But I still rated Massa’s season only fourth globally while leaving Hamilton out of the top five. Honestly, in a year with so much parity, I honestly think the best performances were elsewhere (I put Sébastien Loeb #1, Jamie Whincup #2, and Dixon #3 for that year). Gave Jimmie Johnson my last spot in the top five although I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to pick Hamilton, Vettel, or Carl Edwards instead.
Boy, that Talladega race sucked, didn’t it? I’ve generally had low expectations ever since the two caution-free races in 2001 and 2002, but after the three godawful fall 2008 to fall 2009 races in a row, my expectations are that they will always be bad. The 2020s were a bit of an improvement and honestly, I didn’t even hate the 2X2 gridlock and the fuel-saving as much as everyone else did. It was pretty to watch drivers in formation like that as long as they didn’t crash. However, yesterday’s race was the first time the gridlock annoyed me and I think it’s because unlike last year’s spring race (which I actually enjoyed even though most did not), most of the cars crashed and that was still the result. Once it came down to a battle between Chris Buescher and Carson Hocevar, I totally knew that Hocevar would win though. Hocevar has a competitive fire, an élan, that Buescher does not have and will never have. A wild overdriver like Hocevar will try any slick move necessary to win, even if he ruffles feathers (like nerfing Erik Jones off the track), while a complacent conservative like Buescher seems to always back down in a duel. It’s like he’s becoming the Cup version of Bryan Herta, a very good driver who all the other drivers know they can push around, so he always loses in a fight except that one inexplicable Watkins Glen race where he punked Shane van Gisbergen. So, I knew Hocevar would win once I saw who his opponent in the 2X2 formation was and I was glad for him. I do like him even if I don’t like the way he drives, and he reminds me a great deal of Ernie Irvan who was my second favorite driver back in the ‘90s (until I learned long after the fact about how he intentionally blew several engines to get out of his contract with Morgan-McClure…)
Somebody slapped my mom in the nursing home. Apparently she had mouthed off and I’m sure whatever she said was not okay, but I’m still old-fashioned in believing physical actions are worse than words. At least she wasn’t hurt. All this makes me want to do is scream at the woman at Adult Protective Services who forced her in for hoarding and won’t let her out until the 13 months it takes to construct a ramp are completed. And they lost her dentures, one of her blankets, her cell phone, and I keep winning her Van Duyn Nursing Home-branded teddy bears, which are one of the few small possessions she’s had any sentimental attachment over since she’s been in there, and either she keeps losing them or they keep stealing them (this has happened about three times now). That’s a stupid thing to care about, I know. At least her behavior has been more pleasant than the last two years when she was at home.
Because I ended up delaying the Massa post and I also decided that Tracy Hines (who I originally scheduled for May Day) didn’t have enough cumulative points for lock status (he’s still close), I’m going to shift everybody a day from my originally schedule to catch up. I think I’ll leave Juan Manuel Fangio on his birthday since I usually stay home and don’t visit Mom on Thursdays and that one will probably take some time, so I’ll slide Mike Parkes in Hines’s spot:
April 26: Felipe Massa (paywalled)
April 27: Ian Geoghegan (free)
April 28: Cacá Bueno (free)
April 29: Russell Ingall (paywalled)
April 30: Juan Manuel Fangio (paywalled)
May 1: Mike Parkes (free)
May 2: Alessandro Cagno (free)
