Felipe and Lewis Collide Again

There was another collision today between the seemingly magnetic Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton. However, this time it was the Brazilian who was punished with a drive through penalty. Both drivers are struggling massively at the moment – and these are the 2 drivers who fought over the 2008 title so closely.

They have similar issues at the moment – being soundly beaten by their team mates and appearing to lack confidence. I’m not sure why they look like pale imitations of the drivers who performed so admirably in their championship battle.

Personally I thought the collision yesterday was a racing incident. Lewis was being ambitious trying to pass there and Felipe could have taken a wider line around that corner. I was surprised to see Massa get a penalty but that may be because of the number of previous penalties that Lewis Hamilton has received this season.

The biggest concern for Massa’s race for me was his retirement. Having broken the suspension on his Ferrari during qualifying he then made the exact same mistake on a different corner. There is talk that Ferrari were running some experimental parts with an eye on 2012 but that is irrelevant – Felipe made the exact same mistake twice. A world class driver doesn’t do that.

Lewis was once again beaten by a teammate who was seen as inferior when he joined the team. He is now 38 points behind Jenson with only 50 points available. He is set to be beaten by his teammate for the first time since entering F1.

Damon Hill in 1995 was all over the place. He spent the winter sorting his head out and went on to dominate the 1996 season – winning 8 races and winning the championship by 19 points. Both Felipe and Lewis need to do the same and come back stronger and more focused on success in F1.