Sir Jackie's view – Hungarian Grand Prix
RBS ambassador Sir Jackie Stewart knows how Felipe Massa feels after a seemingly certain victory was snatched away by an engine failure, and he has some advice on how to overcome the disappointment.
RBS ambassador Sir Jackie Stewart knows how Felipe Massa feels after a seemingly certain victory was snatched away by an engine failure, and he has some advice on how to overcome the disappointment.
"The Make it Happen moment of the race - maybe even of the entire Driver's Championship - was Felipe Massa's engine failure. He'd made a great start and run a good race, and he was three laps away from winning the race when it happened.
He'll put it behind him, though. Every top racing driver has been disappointed by a mechanical failure and one time or another. Including myself. For example, in the 1966 Indianapolis 500, I was leading with 192 laps completed and eight remaining when my engine failed. Not a lot of people win the Indy 500, so it was a big disappointment.
But you just have to take it philosophically. Massa will be a bit upset for a day or so, but he knows that an F1 car is a mechanical device with around 5,000 components, and failures are not unknown. The engine alone has a considerable number of moving parts, so it's not surprising that one fails every now and again when it's revving at 19,000 revs.
You just have to say, "That was not a good day." There's no point screaming and shouting. F1 is a team effort, and the mechanics will be disappointed too - particularly the engine guys.
Of course, Massa's bad luck was Heikki Kovalainen's good luck: he inherited his first F1 victory in his first year with McLaren. Timo Glock also deserves credit for his excellent drive after a big accident in the German Grand Prix two weeks before. It was a very good result for Toyota. Whereas the Williams team, with their excellent facilities, could be doing better."
