Am I alone in feeling uncomfortable about Felipe Massa's decision not to retire after all?
I can understand it from the Williams point of view. Shipping Valtteri Bottas across to Mercedes brings its financial benefits. (As an aside, after a season with a Williams-Mercedes that was below par, it will be interesting to see how Valtteri stacks up against Hamilton. Or, put another way: will the Rosberg naysayers come to realise how good he really was in comparison with the fastest driver out there?)
Keeping Massa on board also makes sense when Lance Stroll, for all his promise and miles of private testing, will need good guidance while driving for a team in need of recovery from a disappointing season. There is unlikely to be a better and more caring mentor than the ego-free Massa.
This will be Felipe's 15th season. While that is a heap of priceless experience, you have to wonder if the F1 moment has passed. He was out-qualified 17 to 4 by Bottas and twice claimed fifth as his best result in a season with a few more incidents than really ought to be expected from the winner of 11 grands prix. It's correct to say that an engine failure and a pit lane screw-up cost Massa the championship. But that was 2008. And Felipe turns 36 next April. Only Räikkönen is older.
Technically, you could say that this is not a comeback because the poor guy has hardly been away. It is also fair to point out that Massa was not mentally counting down to a long-awaited retirement thanks to the door to the street being held open by his team. Another advantage is that Williams are not being forced to deal with the arrival of a tall driver when the dimensions for the 2017 car have long since been settled. Which is a handy lead-in to previous returns that have been more foolhardy than fruitful.
Nigel Mansell's renewal with F1 in 1995 is not fondly remembered by McLaren, particularly the engineers tasked with making a cockpit big enough to accommodate the 1992 champion's posterior. Alan Jones looked similarly large when he squeezed into an Arrows driving suit more than a year after retiring.
There have been successful revivals, Alain Prost stepping into a Williams in 1993 and driving as if he had never been away for 12 months. And then there is Mario Andretti, who received the call from Ferrari towards the end of a turbulent 1982 season, appeared in Milan airport wearing a Ferrari cap and endeared himself totally to the tifosi by putting his car on pole at Monza.
It's unlikely Massa will do that at Interlagos next November. The fact that Felipe is extremely popular throughout F1 is all the more reason to look away if he struggles. I understand why the deal needed to be done. I just wish he hadn't accepted.