To say Felipe Massa was frustrated on Sunday night in Valencia would be an understatement, after the Brazilian finished a lowly 14th on the road. Even 5secs penalties for other drivers only pushed him up to 11th.
Massa was furious that both he and Fernando Alonso were trapped behind the safety car, which he claims was travelling unusually slowly before it waved them by after the accident scene. The delay in getting back to the pits meant they tumbled down the order after their stops.
This was Massa’s third consecutive failure to score, and he still lies just eighth in the World Championship, 60 points behind leader Lewis Hamilton.
“It was a very bad day,” said Massa when asked about his race by this blog. “I think we had a good car, and a good possibility to fight. We were third and fourth. And then we had a very difficult moment when we had the big accident. We didn’t see any yellow flag for the safety car until the main straight, when we were on the main straight we saw it. And then I saw everybody stopping behind me.
“And apart from this we had the safety car at the end of the straight, and it was Lewis, Fernando and me behind the car, and then suddenly the car has yellow lights, doing the normal line. And then suddenly I saw that Lewis passed the car, and it was Fernando and me behind. The car was very, very slow, and we lost completely the whole race there.
“Suddenly we got the green light to pass the safety car in Turn 14, after the accident. So it destroyed completely our race, for me because of the safety car which is not supposed to be so slow like that. But also we lost the possibility to fight.”
Like Alonso, Felipe made it clear that he was not happy with the drive through penalty that ultimately cost Hamilton no positions.
“Lewis passed the car with the yellow lights, and they gave the drive though after 20 minutes, and he didn’t lose anything in the race. Today everything that happened was wrong.
“What’s happened with the decisions from the race director today, and from everybody who works on the decision, was completely wrong. They cannot do that, because what happened today was a big thing.
“When you are behind the safety car and the safety car has a yellow light, doing the normal line, you cannot pass it. The minimum you need to get for that is a time penalty. The minimum. And not after 20 minutes.”
Nevertheless, the bullish Massa says he has not given up on his title hopes: “Until the mathematics is not there, I will push, and try to be there for fighting. That’s my style, and I will push.”
Adam Cooper F1 
I can understand how the Ferrari guys feel, but was the safety car on the racing line when Lewis went by? It looked like it was still on the other side of the pit out line which would mean that it was not on the racing line and who ever had the chance to go by BEFORE it got out was free to do so.
If the Ferraris had had another second or so, would they not have gone by?
And did I miss what ever came of the 5-6 cars that were “being investigated” toward the end of the race, who were possibly going to get moved back in the finishing order?
OK, Got it. Just read Adam’s latest post.
Really upset as a Massa fan. He was 0.05 slower than Alonso in qualifying and probably would have taken 3rd at the stops with Hamilton changing his front wing.
Never any luck for Massa. This dark phase seems to have no end.
I don’t like Ferrari for complaining so much about everything, but Lewis did get VERY lucky for being given a DT penalty 25 minutes later. Why did Race Control take so long? If LH was given one much earlier, then he might be in a different position. Adam, could you give us a “what if” scenario if LH had a penalty say 10 minutes in and not 25? We would love that! Thanks,
Now that there is no refueling, that eliminates one of the reasons for opening the pit lane during a safety car period. The simplest solution in my estimation is to keep it closed. The safety car will pick up the leader and the pack will form behind it.
When the pack is completely formed behind the safety car, open the pin lane then if you want to. That way nobody can luck into an unfair advantage. Ferrari got royally screwed in this race.
The FIA love to make things more complicated than they need and have to go back and revise the loopholes that they have created.
Tom is absolutely correct. The safety car is being deployed because the track is not safe or someone might be hurt. Once the stewards decide the saftey car is being sent out all cars must stop racing and hold their position. The pit lane should be closed until everybody is in line and under contol in the proper running order and then you can open the pit lane if you want. Nobody should be able to gain an advantage because of a saftely car.
When and if the FIA chnge this they can get rid of all this silly delta time nonsense and they should also say that racing only resumes at the finish line which would have eliminated the Monaco problem with Shumacher as well. They need to keep it simple and black and white so the teams don’t try to take advantge of these situations.
Maybe they should apply simplicity and common sense to some technical rules as well and then they won’t have to go back and change them again in six months like double diffusers and
kers and so on.
Apparently Massa doesn’t know the rules, whereas Hamilton does. It’s not the yellow lights that say do not pass, but the safety car line at the end of the pit exit. Hamilton missed it only for a fraction of a second, that why it took so long to confirm
A fraction of a second is a long time in F1, Mr. Sasquatch. Long enough for a pole position (and subsequent win) and long enough to be seen as a violation of the rules, wouldn’t you agree?