MASSA: Alguersuari too young for F1

The Spanish racer has only driven a Formula 1 car in straightline tests and arrives in Hungary having not completed a single lap in the STR4 machine.

Massa admitted he was surprised by Toro Rosso's decision to put him in the car, and the Brazilian reckons it is wrong for F1 and will not help Alguersuari as he is likely to struggle.

"For me he's too young," Massa told reporters at Hungaroring. "When I came into Formula 1 I was just 20 and for me it was also quite young. I was too inexperienced to ask what I needed from the car so I made some mistakes. For sure I had a very difficult car to drive, but anyway, it was not easy for me.

"But even for myself, and I can say it was too early for me, I did the whole winter (of testing), so I did many tests in Formula 1. He's never driven a Formula 1 car, or he has driven it in a straight line or whatever.

"For me it's wrong. It's not good for him. For me he can burn himself very quickly. Maybe he's an incredible talent and he will do much better than everybody thinks, but for me it's not good for him.

"I'm surprised a team would put a guy like this in the car. For me it's not right."

SOURCE: Autosport

I think the ban on testing is really going to make it much harder for new drivers to step up to F1. As Massa said, Alguesuari (or any potential F1 driver) will have had no real experience of driving an F1 car prior to the practice session before their first race.

So far the ban on in-season testing has had very little impact on new drivers, because everyone racing this season has prior experience, either racing or as a test driver, but that isn't possible for new drivers.

I can see him in a wall fairly early to be honest.69ANT69

Well we have the Valencia street circuit next, so that's a real possibility. They seem to be giving him a lot of laps in practice so far though, which will be good for him. I reckon he could get about 150 laps this weekend. That's nowhere near what he needs, but a start I guess.