Why Massa would be wrong for Formula E

Let's pretend Felipe Massa's Formula 1 career is over and he's signed a Formula E contract. He's identified the electric series as his plan B, after all. For the sake of argument, let's say it's with Jaguar, for the 2018/19 season. He's tested with the team and had talks about a drive, after all. That's his destination, and timing, in this hypothetical scenario.

So, Massa's signed on the dotted line. The Indian-owned British manufacturer has a popular ex-F1 driver, a winner of multiple grands prix, added to its line-up for a season that will include a race in Sao Paulo. Good, right? Maybe. Apart from the fact that I can name at least six better options - and that's only picking drivers currently on the grid.

One of FE's ongoing weaknesses is that sometimes its priorities are skewed. While a bigger problem is certainly how it insists upon having women in decorative roles - whether they be grid girls or celebrity guests - another is an enduring preference for ex-F1 drivers.

That made sense in the beginning. Much like the design of the series' inaugural electric single-seater, borrowing F1 hand-me-downs was a good way to get people to pay attention to FE. Prop it up with established veterans like Nick Heidfeld and Jarno Trulli, throw in talented guys who didn't get a full F1 career like Nelson Piquet Jr, Sebastien Buemi and Lucas di Grassi, and go from there.

FE doesn't need to be relying on past reputations anymore. Buemi and di Grassi have established themselves as the faces of the series, but the talent pool has much more depth heading towards the 2017/18 season. It's a much, much stronger field than the inaugural campaign - Sakon Yamamoto and Michela Cerrutti aren't going to get a look in now.

Here's the rub: FE doesn't have a massive audience. That's despite 20 grand prix drivers (of varying ability and success) turning out in an electric single-seater at some point since the championship's inception. So, ex-F1 drivers haven't exactly been a golden bullet in terms of attracting a mass audience. Is one more - even one of Massa's calibre - really going to be the tipping point, the catalyst for explosive growth?

I doubt it. FE has to find other ways to grow - and if it's doing that organically, it's time to turn its 'homegrown' talent into electric superstars.

Having grand prix experience on your CV guarantees nothing; Rosenqvist took seven attempts to win, while ex-F1 driver Vergne qualified on pole for his FE debut but didn't win in his first 30 efforts

Felix Rosenqvist, Robin Frijns, Alex Lynn or Antonio Felix da Costa could well be poster boys for FE for years to come. Even an Oliver Turvey or a Sam Bird (both 30) would have several seasons on the (currently 36-year-old) Massa. The priority needs to shift to medium- and long-term planning, not short-term gains that might not even be that fruitful.

Jaguar picked Mitch Evans and Adam Carroll for its return to major international single-seater racing last year. Even though the Carroll experiment didn't work out, Evans was a gamble that truly paid off - and the 23-year-old New Zealander will surely be part of the team's 2017/18 line-up, and has marked himself out as a potential FE star if he sticks around and maintains the form we saw in his rookie season.

It did not go for blockbuster signings, nor the safety of FE experience, and for both reasons Jaguar deserves enormous credit. It bucked the trend by shunning a big name and, so paddock whispers suggest, angered some within FE in doing so. Good. If that sort of thing ruffles feathers, then FE needs more of it.

Give quality young drivers a chance and the best among them will take it. Rosenqvist has become a race winner with the Mahindra team, something that took him just seven races to manage. Conversely ex-F1 driver Jean-Eric Vergne qualified on pole for his FE debut but didn't win in his first 30 attempts. Having grand prix experience on your CV guarantees nothing.

Similarly, give drivers the chance to be stars and their reputations will grow. After a short F1 career in Red Bull's junior team, Buemi has become FE's leading man - his outburst post-Montreal race one went viral because of its explosivity and because he's the most high-profile driver in the series. I can't see a similar video of Tom Dillmann having the same impact.

Rosenqvist might be mild-mannered - he's pretty laid back even by Scandinavian standards - but he's capable of a superb soundbite. Ditto Frijns and da Costa. Evans is a bit more reserved, but he's fundamentally an engaging talker, intelligent and witty. Put that front and centre and he'll blossom.

FE's filled with a number of interesting characters, with different careers and backgrounds. Getting behind the less-heralded but higher-quality drivers, the better long-term options, ensures greater standards on the grid, a fairer, more rewarding category and a more varied range of stories to tell.

Look at the World Endurance Championship. The winning team is currently set to be Brendon Hartley (dropped by Red Bull on the way to F1), Earl Bamber (Porsche Carrera Cup ace whose most high-profile single-seater exploits were A1GP podiums for Team New Zealand) and sportscar stalwart Timo Bernhard (part of the LMP1 project from the beginning). Much as I get on with Buemi, and have no grudge to bear against Anthony Davidson or Kazuki Nakajima, the Porsche trio is a much more interesting story than 'ex-F1 drivers win in a lesser series'.

What FE needs is quality. That is ultimately the most important thing for the championship from a racing perspective. Focus on depth and let the strength of the series draw in wider appeal. Yes, there's every chance Massa would come into FE and fight at the front. But if that happens, it's one fewer opportunity for a rising star at the sharp end of the grid.

Massa shouldn't be afforded an opportunity just because of a reputation he forged in another series several years ago

It should be made clear that Massa would not necessarily be a bad Formula E driver. He is experienced, dedicated and still capable of driving very quickly. These are three key requirements for any chance of success in the electric single-seater series. If Massa could be plugged into FE and run right at the front, given the benefits he could bring commercially, of course he would be a big addition to the series.

He'd definitely be the most high-profile F1 convert, but there's no guarantee he'd be successful. Esteban Gutierrez rocked up mid-season and scored points, but that was with the best powertrain on the grid in a team that went on to win a race. He hardly starred, and that's proof that FE's not full of cast-offs, has-beens or never-weres.

Gutierrez might not have the same career peak as Massa, but could you say with absolute certainty that the Massa of end-2017 is quicker than Gutierrez in his prime? Keep in mind that for all Gutierrez's flaws in piecing a grand prix weekend together, he had the pace to rival Romain Grosjean at Haas in 2016 - they have a near-identical supertime (the best lap time over a given grand prix weekend expressed as a percentage) for the entire season.

Massa's F1 record has hardly been stellar in the past few years, even if he's enjoyed something approaching an Indian summer this year. And if Massa's pace is lacking, would his experience translate into the same nous for development as, say, Nick Heidfeld, who has been immensely valuable to Mahindra? That is definitely up for debate - witness Williams's general (downward) spiral in form in 2017.

The bottom line is that Massa's career, excellent though it has been, is ebbing towards a conclusion. He's made it clear he doesn't want to stay in F1 to make up the numbers and he deserves credit for that stance. But if FE really values itself, really thinks it is carving out its own place in motorsport, it should not willingly let itself become a retirement option for a driver no longer good enough for a leading F1 seat.

Of course, Massa would hardly be alone in having FE as a secondary option. There is little point pretending a driver would genuinely pick FE over F1 if they had a choice between a top drive in either series. So, this isn't a declaration that FE should shun any driver that doesn't view it as the peak of motorsport.

Instead, FE should build on what it's already created: an alternative professional reality for drivers that didn't get the chance they deserved in F1. Massa might have a certain appeal, but he doesn't fit that category. He shouldn't be afforded an opportunity just because of a reputation forged somewhere else several years ago.