Felipe Massa

Felipe Massa talking about his return behind the wheel in an official race, about the new car and his expectations regarding the first, exciting race of the season, held on the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain.

Felipe Massa believes Ferrari could enjoy its best start to a season for several years given its performance in winter testing.

The Italian squad was quickest throughout the first test at Valencia and remained among the front pack throughout the month, while also having very few reliability issues.

Massa reckons his team will therefore not only put its 2009 misery behind it, but can get off to an even stronger start than it did when battling for titles in the previous three seasons.

“I am very happy and very motivated that we can start the championship in a better way not just than last year, which was not a very good year, but also than the other championships,” he told the official Ferrari website.

“It looks like we are in good condition to start the championship with Read the rest of this entry »

Felipe Massa has hit out at the new teams joining Formula 1 this season, suggesting that their relatively slow pace is bad for the championship and could pose a danger for the frontrunners.

Massa’s Ferrari team has been strongly critical of the way the increased F1 entry was handled, and the Brazilian said the newcomers’ lack of speed is a concern for him too.

“I hope they won’t be a danger,” said Massa in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reprinted on Ferrari’s website.

“There are six/seven teams one second apart while those teams are four seconds behind. It’s not good for the sport and not good for them: it’s like two different series.

“They’ll suffer. And we’ll suffer too, when we have them in front of us during qualifying.”

Lotus and Virgin were several seconds off the pace in pre-season testing, but are confident they will get up to speed given time and mileage, while fellow newcomer Hispania will not run until Bahrain next weekend.

Matt Beer – Autosport

Ferrari has announced that it has added Mirko Bortolotti, Daniel Zampieri and Raffaele Marciello to its Ferrari Driver Academy project, alongside first recruit Jules Bianchi.

Bortolotti and Zampieri have already tested for Ferrari as their prize for winning the Italian Formula 3 title in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

Having raced in Formula 2 last year, Bortolotti is set for a GP3 seat with Addax in 2010, while Zampieri will drive for Pons in Formula Renault 3.5.

Marciello, a 15-year-old karting graduate, will be placed in Italian single-seater category Formula Abarth (formerly Formula Azzurra) this year.

Ferrari has also revealed that the champion in new Brazilian series Formula Future Fiat will automatically become part of its Academy programme next year.

Matt Beer – Autosport

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali is confident his Italian outfit is in the top group that will be fighting at the front of Formula 1 this season – but he has drawn short of saying his team is out in front.

With Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa both upbeat about the progress of the F10 in pre-season testing, Domenicali believes the defining factor this season will be in how quickly teams can bring updates to their cars.

“What we could see, and considering all the unknown factors in the testing, I think that we’ve shown that we can be competitive and are part of the top group in terms of pure performance and also on the long run,” Domenicali told the official Ferrari website.

“This is an important result considering how we Read the rest of this entry »