Pressure to perform a weight on Felipe Massa's mind to stay at Ferrari
Ferrari are keen to keep him on roster, but on one condition - Brazilian must improve his track performance
Nice to see Mark Webber at Silverstone at the weekend. He was wandering around the grid of the MotoGP seemingly without a care in the world, which compared to the average F1 driver is probably true.
Webber has, of course, decided to race away from Formula One next year, but for those whose ambitions only encompass the top of the tree it's an anxious time. It's especially anxious if you are an under-pressure Ferrari driver in the hothouse atmosphere of Monza.
You have to feel sorry for Felipe Massa, who was the recipient of some classic good news/bad news this week from the Ferrari hierarchy. Good news: we want to keep you for next season. Bad news: only if your results improve on the track this year.
Five years ago, he thought he was world champion, only for Lewis Hamilton to snatch the crown on the last bend of the last race in front of his home Brazilian crowd. You can only imagine the psychological damage that would have inflicted.
Since then he has endured a torrid time, not winning a single race and managing only eight podiums. In that time Fernando Alonso has won 11 races in 39 trips to the podium. Massa has also had to come back from the accident that nearly killed him when he was struck in the helmet by a stray spring from another car.
You could understand if this bad luck and misfortune started to mess with your head, and for Massa it seems to have been the case. This time last year he was on the brink of being dumped by Ferrari after a slump in form. He was thinking of quitting the sport altogether.
Instead he engaged the services of a sport psychologist and started to show his unquestioned ability again. He will need to do that again with Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali not offering unwavering support in the race for a 2014 seat.