mario wrote:And leaving aside the arguments over stewarding decisions, Massa was also error prone that season, and he failed to really take advantage of having a very competitive car. After all, he span a perfectly healthy car out of the Malaysian GP, and admitted it was his mistake, was penalised for spinning Hamilton in the Japanese GP and lucky not to be penalised for hitting Bourdais, and we know about the problems he faced in the British GP. So, whilst he may have put in some very impressive and mature performances, he did put in some very scrappy performances, much like Hamilton did: on driving performance alone, it is contentious at the very least to say that Massa was the more deserving champion (however you wish to define the term deserving).
OK, they both made mistakes. But you can't deny that Massa was robbed of a lot of points from forces outside his control, whereas Hamilton wasn't really. I think that is where many people, including myself, see Massa as the better driver (he created more opportunities, had to beat a better teammate) in that season.
-Australia - 3 points - engine failure - would have finished 6th after Raikkonen and Bourdais retired
-Hungary - 10 points - engine failure
-Singapore - 6+ points - botched pitstop - potential win lost due to Renault's cheating. Even with this and without the bad stop, would have likely finished on the podium based on his early speed.
This all outweighs Spa anyway, even though I believe that was a fair penalty (see below).
madmark1974 wrote:I'm not going to go on about this too much, but Massa was definitely given some assistance by ridiculous stewarding decisions i.e. penalising Hamilton's pass on Kimi at Spa thereby giving Massa the win,
and the aforementioned penalty for Bourdais. Plus, I think if you add up all of Massa's errors at Silverstone it comes to more than Hamilton's for the entire year ...
I'm surprised that people are still questioning the stewards' decision at Spa 2008. In my mind there was no doubt that Lewis gained an advantage by cutting the chicane. There was simply no way he would have been in a place to overtake if he had taken the chicane normally.
Also, I would say that Lewis' mistake in Canada was just as bad as Massa in Singapore. Don't forget that Kimi spun a few times that day as well, and the F2008 was well-known as a difficult car to drive in the wet. Destroying the races of others is worse than destroying your own, I think.
I've got to agree, and even Japan Lewis made his own mistake in trying to overtake everyone at turn one and dragging everyone else off. Oh well, better luck next year Felipe!
(I even got pole!)
And to be honest, by Lewis winning that year, it allowed Massa to prove that he is a genuinely good guy with his heart in the right place by being so gracious and Lewis got the championship. The only real loser was Timo Glock by being slated for using the wrong tyres.
