Will Felipe Massa finish the season with Ferrari?

As the Spanish Grand Prix confirmed the uncertainty in the Formula One World Championship, and while the updates to the F2012 seem to have put Scuderia Ferrari back on track, Fernando Alonso and the management of the Maranello team appear to have regained hope of competing for both the driver and constructor titles.

The only shadow on the Barcelona scene was Felipe Massa’s performance, who started 16th while Fernando Alonso was on the front row, and finished in a distant 15th place after a penalty. After the race, Stefano Domenicali stated that he expected Felipe to react after this unlucky weekend, starting in Monaco, indicating that the team absolutely needed his points to also compete for the constructors’ championship. These remarks were quickly interpreted as a sort of warning to the Brazilian, who, as Alonso has shown, can no longer really hide behind a failed car.

It didn’t take much for dark clouds to gather over the head of the Paulista, whose future in red, already greatly hindered for 2013, could potentially come to an end earlier than expected. Thus, according to some observers, the F2012 would no longer be a poisoned chalice for the young and promising Sergio Pérez, who would now find more favorable conditions at Ferrari for making his mid-season debut.

However, in case of an early departure of Felipe Massa, the speculations in the Barcelona paddock were rather on the side of Force India, where Adrian Sutil’s presence this weekend did not go unnoticed: “It’s important to be here,” the German confided on RTL airwaves. “With hope, something will come out of it. It’s still very early in the season, so I have to wait a little, but on the other hand, maybe I could get back in a seat faster than expected.”

From then on, several scenarios are possible according to the media, starting with a straightforward replacement of Felipe Massa by Adrian Sutil, an option already mentioned during the winter. Others, however, mention the possibility of replacing one of the two main drivers at Force India, as Anthony Hamilton and Timo Gans, respective managers of Paul di Resta and Nico Hülkenberg, were reportedly seen in discussion with Ferrari at the Catalonia circuit paddock. The Scotsman has also been strongly recommended to the Scuderia by his compatriot and triple world champion: Jackie Stewart.

This remains, of course, pure speculation, and Jaime Alguersuari confides in an interview with the newspaper AS that Felipe Massa still, in his view, holds the cards: « For the moment, the most important thing for him is to stop thinking about external pressure and simply focus on his work and his problems. Sometimes you are not competitive, something has happened, and you don’t really know what it is. But the worst thing you can do is doubt, hesitate, become nervous, and start looking at your teammate, because that makes things worse. Being among the elite in sports doesn’t only depend, as some believe, on your skills, it’s about your psychological, physical, and technical management of the elements. I am convinced that Massa is not a slow driver; he can return to Fernando [Alonso]’s level and even – why not? – be faster. The only difference between the two is in the mind: it’s the difference between being good and being the best. »

Livio Oricchio, correspondent for the Brazilian newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo, does not share the Spaniard’s optimism regarding the future of the Ferrari driver: At this stage, only a miracle could allow Massa to stay with Ferrari [in 2013]. He would need to do what he has failed to do over the last two seasons, namely qualify close to Alonso and regularly score points. […] It’s a huge challenge given Massa’s lack of confidence and his car.

In any case, these are speculations that will likely not put the native of Sao Paulo in the best position to face the Monaco challenge, where even the slightest mistake is costly and could possibly cost him his seat.