Felipe Massa thinks Max Verstappen's crash at the Monaco Grand Prix proves the importance of experience in Formula One.
Verstappen slammed into the back of Romain Grosjean at Turn 1 on lap 66, a collision which saw him go straight into the tyre barrier. The 17-year-old walked away unharmed and pointed the finger of blame at Grosjean after the race, though the stewards disagreed and handed F1's youngest-ever driver a five-place grid penalty for Canada and two points on his licence.
Massa, the fourth most experienced driver of the current grid, shares the opinion Verstappen was at fault.
"I would say what for me was pretty dangerous was the accident with Verstappen," he said. "He's supposed to get a penalty for what he did. So he just braked behind, much later and what happened was very dangerous."So it shows that maybe experience counts in Formula One, and I think to teach about this type of accident they need to control better because it was very dangerous. So he was lucky that he was not hurt, because he could have been very hurt by what happened."
Speaking about the move itself, Massa said: "To be honest he was not even in a position to overtake. He was not even near to go alongside, he was behind. So to be honest it was too much what happened."
Verstappen's early elevation to F1 raised questions about safety and even prompted the FIA to make it impossible for anyone under 18 to drive in the sport after this season. Massa does not think people should downplay the seriousness of the accident just because Verstappen was uninjured.
"Well with this type of mistakes, yes. It was very dangerous for him. He's 17, so if he's hurt everybody would talk about it. 'Why did they give a licence to a guy who is 17 and he's doing that?' But he's not hurt, everybody's happy, so I think they need to look at things in a better way."