Quote:
Originally Posted by Greem
The thing about Massa that set him apart from lots of other drivers wasn't that he had more hunger to win or that he was more ruthless, or that he didn't really care about anyone else, or that he was one of the greats, a talent apart, or in fact that he shone more brilliantly than others in terms of 'natural talent'.
What set him apart was that he was quick (hey, he was in F1 after all), he was the perfect team player - to his own misfortune at times, and he carried himself with tremendous dignity most of the time, even when we could see his inner fury at a situation.
( I may have said something similar before)
Above all, he seems like a jolly nice bloke. No wonder he's popular.
I think F1 as a whole will be worse off without him, tbh. |
Well said. I can't think of a better way to view him than this. He basically is a world champion, just without the title to show for it. Of course it seems he lost a step after his accident, but that's understandable. I don't think he was ever one of the top 3 or so in the series, but was good enough to be up there with them. I remember an article in a racer magazine that compared the top 6 in the series at the time, and he came off as the weakest of those 6, mostly because it said he was weaker in wet conditions and lacked the natural ability to wring the most out of any setup like a Hamilton, but that shouldn't really be a knock against him. He was good enough to be a champ in the right circumstances.
I won't miss him necessarlily, because he has been mired in the midfield on a middling team of late, just as I wouldn't really miss Perez (except for teammate fireworks), grosjean, hulkenberg, and a few others. But I respect the really good career he has had and the fact that he seems to be well respected and well liked.