Russ Bond Motorsport Report: Felipe Makes a 'Massa' Out of It!

Ferrari Formula 1 driver Felipe Massa should be at the top of his game, as he has one of two of the best seats in Formula 1, or so we thought until the Malaysian Grand Prix this weekend. Clearly, Ferrari is where you want to be in the Formula 1 world for drivers.

No one told Fernando Alonso that.

Alonso, as you well remember, switched from the dominant Renault team last year, to the nowhere to be seen McLaren Mercedes team this year. At Malaysia, the McLaren Mercedes mounts of two-time world champion Alonso, and Formula 1's new dream boy, Lewis Hamilton were easy to spot – they were at the front, all race long, with Alonso taking the win, followed by Hamilton in second.

The Mercedes lads had it all their own way after the first lap or so. Alonso jumped pole sitter Felipe Massa on the start, and Hamilton completed his second seemingly impossible move at the start to demote Massa to third.

Here's where it get troublesomeif you are Massa. You see, in the eyes of those decision makers in Formula 1, drivers have what you call variable slides. One weekend they are the best thing since sliced bread, the next week, after one brain dead move, they are ready to be fed to the wolves. Case in point; Renault new boy Heikki Kovalainen banged the Formula 1 world over the head when a few years ago he bested Michael Schumacher at the Race of Champions in Paris. He instantly became a 'god'.

Three weeks ago he looked about as much out of place in Formula 1 as Robby Gordon does in Nextel Cup (did I say that out loud). He repeatedly chucked his Renault off the track, leading to a dressing down from Mr. Briatore, the head man at Renault. That's all forgotten now, as Kovalainen scored his first point at Malaysia in a decidedly second hand Renault.

Anyhow, the point is, as a Formula 1 driver,perception is everything. See if you can figure who is on the upswing and who will be filleted when returning to Italy?

Here's the Scene...

The aforementioned Hamilton has just swooped past Massa to sit second in the opening laps of the Malaysian Grand Prix. Massa is clearly faster, and he is mounting a charge of his own to reclaim the spot. On his first attempt, he dives up the inside at turn three, only to brake too late, and have Hamilton go back up the inside on the exit of the corner, keeping the spot.

Undaunted, Massa has another go at him on the next lap, and this time he outbrakes himself yet again and goes off the road on the exit of the turn, letting two cars pass before he can get back on the track (keep in mind these are 'the best drivers in the world').

Its one thing to attempt a pass and have it go wrong once, but twice, and cost yourself two spots is just not on. Then add to this the fact that those spots were never regained and Massa came home fifth, and I can assure you that there was not one Italian sitting in any café, anywhere in the world when Massa chucked it off the road& .. they were all screaming at the television.

On the other hand, Mr. Hamilton, much like the example before with Kovalainen, is seeing his 'worth' and reputation soar like an eagle leaving his nest on a windy day!

The short version is Ferrari's number two driver got 'schooled' by a rookie who – at that point – had about60 laps of F1 race experience. How do you think that will play to the Tifosi back home.

The only bright spot for Massa is that Bahrain is this upcoming weekend, and if he wins all about Malaysia will be forgotten, as those in F1 have good, but short memories& ..

Other than those first few laps, the Malaysian Grand Prix was not exactly a thriller. The one-two finish for the Mercedes team shows that they are for real. Kimi Raikkonen was third for Ferrari, while BMW's Nick Heidfeld was fourth, with Massa fifth.

What might be the most interesting aspect of the race was that some of the engine supplier teams, particularly Honda and Toyota, didn't fare much better than the teams they were supplying. Once again Ralf Schumacher in the works Toyota fiddled around in back while Williams Toyota driver Alexander Wurz came close to pulling in points in a respectable 9th; Toyota driver Jarno Trulli, on the other hand, enjoyed a points paying 7th. Honda looked better at the end of the race than they did in the beginning, with Rubens Barrichello besting lead driver Jenson Button in 11th and 12th respectively, while Honda-powered Super Aguri driver Takuma Sato, who made the top ten in qualifying, was right behind the factory drivers in 13th place at finish.

If you think that Italy's Tifosi are screaming obscenities at the little Brazilian for blowing pole, just think how hard it is for those in the land of the rising sun to maintain polite decorum about Honda and Toyota.

This should be an interesting season...

2007 Malaysian Grand Prix

Pos No Driver Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points

2 2 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 56 +17.5 secs 4 8

3 6 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 56 +18.3 secs 3 6

4 9 Nick Heidfeld BMW 56 +33.7 secs 5 5

5 5 Felipe Massa Ferrari 56 +36.7 secs 1 4

6 3 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 56 +65.6 secs 12 3

7 12 Jarno Trulli Toyota 56 +70.1 secs 8 2

8 4 Heikki Kovalainen Renault 56 +72.0 secs 11 1

9 17 Alexander Wurz Williams-Toyota 56 +89.9 secs 19

10 15 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 56 +93.5 secs 10

11 8 Rubens Barrichello Honda 55 +1 Lap 22

12 7 Jenson Button Honda 55 +1 Lap 15

13 22 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 55 +1 Lap 14

14 19 Scott Speed STR-Ferrari 55 +1 Lap 17

15 11 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 55 +1 Lap 9

16 23 Anthony Davidson Super Aguri-Honda 55 +1 Lap 18

17 18 Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Ferrari 55 +1 Lap 16

18 10 Robert Kubica BMW 55 +1 Lap 7

Ret 16 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 42 +14 Laps 6

Ret 14 David Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 36 Brakes 13

Ret 21 Christijan Albers Spyker-Ferrari 7 Engine 20

Ret 20 Adrian Sutil Spyker-Ferrari 0 Accident 21

It takes Will Power to Win in Vegas ..

For Champcar, the promise looked pretty good heading into the new season for the struggling series. New chassis, new venues – the first three are street races – and a host of new drivers, most with unpronounceable names. Add to that, kicking off in Sin City itself, Las Vegas, and you have the recipe for a phenomenal season opener.

That would have been true for Champcar if just a few things were a little different, like, for instance, teams would have a better than 50/50 shot that the new cars would actually take on fuel with the rigs attached. The fuel rigs were a constant problem all weekend long at Vegas, and as much as I hate to say it, they damn near made the race exciting to watch.

Teams would stop, then stop the next lap to put in fuel that didn't go in on the first stop. I actually think they may be onto something there, where maybe, by random count,you don't actually get fuel on one of your stops& .. brilliant!

It sure jumbled up the order, and even the television analysts had no clue who had to stop when. I was sure Alex Tagliani was going to win – he ended up fourth.

Paul Tracy was the man to beat. Well, make that Will Power (I didn't make that up, I swear, that's his name) was actually the guy to beat after he passed Tracy for the lead. Tracy stopped twice for fuel, on one of those stops he actually had fuel put in the car. He was nearly a lap down, but with the others having the same fuel issue he came back to finish third to Mr. Power and Robert Doornbos.

“It went really well,” Tracy said after the race. “Obviously, to lead the beginning of the race, I made a good start, was able to get by Will on the start. We spent a lot of the first part of the race under yellow. Then once we got going, I made a small mistake, hit the curb, the chicane, bounced up high off the ground. Will really capitalized off that, drafted up on me. I got a slow entry onto the straightaway. Really couldn't put up much of a fight about it. Really, I just sat in behind him saving fuel. Came to the first stop glued to the back of him.

“We came in and did our first pit stop. The car didn't take any fuel for us. We spent 15 seconds and ended up getting like four laps of fuel. So that was a bit frustrating. We came back out and chased, then had to come straight back in and take fuel again. That really took the fight out of the race I think for Will. I think we could have put a lot of pressure on him. Obviously, by then we were 45, 50 seconds behind him after doing another stop. We just had to fight, push hard all day, continue to catch people up, get by them. It was a good day for the Forsythe team and Monster Energy.”

I know, I know, you are saying Robert... who? Didn't he race in Formula 1? That answer would be yes, and this was his first ever rolling start, and his second ever street race – his first was Monaco.

Next weekend, what is left of the Champcar series heads to Long Beach for the Long Beach Grand Prix. That is not a lot of time to fix the fuel issue, but to be honest, I would be okay if they didn't.

To give you a really accurate state of affairs in Champcar, I'll leave you with this (and trust me, you Formula 1 fans will love this). Mr. Doornbos drives for Minardi, yes, that Minardi, still owned by Paul Stoddart.