Felipe Massa

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

Felipe Massa is happy with Ferrari’s preparation for the 2010 Formula 1 season, but does not believe it heads for Bahrain with any advantage over its rivals.

The 28-year-old Brazilian, who spent much of the final Barcelona test day running with a heavy fuel load, finished third quickest today.

Ferrari has been strong at all the pre-season tests – topping all three days at Valencia at the start of the month and regularly setting a strong pace on long runs. But Massa pointed to the narrow margins at the test today: eight cars were within half a second of Lewis Hamilton’s fastest lap for McLaren.

“I’m satisfied with the whole of testing, not just Barcelona,” said Massa. “Valencia and Jerez too – we did what we wanted to do, but it looks like it will be a very tough and competitive championship.

“We never expected to have an advantage and Read the rest of this entry »

Felipe Massa was left lamenting the poor track conditions on the second day of this week’s testing at the Jerez circuit on Thursday.

For the second day running, the rain hit the Spanish track during the session, with strong winds making things even more difficult.

Massa, who managed 92 laps on his way to the fifth fastest time, admitted the day had been far from ideal.

“No, not really,” Massa said when asked if the day had been more useful than yesterday. “It was pretty similar conditions: raining, stopping, raining, stopping. Today the track was even much worse because of the very strong wind.

“It was not so positive, but it’s the same Read the rest of this entry »

Felipe Massa helped Ferrari maintain its position as the team to beat on the second day of pre-season Formula 1 testing at Valencia in Spain on Tuesday.

The Brazilian, who had been quickest on the opening day of action on Monday, spent most of the day focusing on long runs – but had put in a quick time early in the morning running that no one else was able to beat.

His best effort of 1m11.722s seconds was set in the first hour of running, when BMW Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi also put in his personal best of 1m12.056s to set the second best time.

“It was definitely a good day,” said Kobayashi. “We had no problems with the car and covered a lot of mileage. The car felt good. I enjoyed driving a lot and also working with the team.

“It was a difficult winter for everyone but Read the rest of this entry »

Felipe Massa was upbeat about the performance of the new Ferrari F10 after topping the times on the opening day of testing at Valencia.

The Brazilian, driving a current Formula 1 car for the first time since his accident at last year’s Hungarian Grand Prix, went quickest of all after over 100 laps of the Ricardo Tormo circuit.

Massa admitted it was good to be back in competitive action and felt the new Ferrari has not inherited the problems of its predecessor, with which the team endured a difficult 2009.

“For sure I’m happy to be back after such a long time watching the races in television, sometimes on track,” Massa told reporters at the end of the day.

“I think it was a very positive day. The car behaved very well. We managed to start and finish our programme like expected, even did a few more laps than expected. So I think it all went very well on the first day.

“The car behaved in a good direction in terms of… I felt it was Read the rest of this entry »

Felipe Massa marked his official return to contemporary Formula 1 machinery with the fastest time on the first morning of pre-season testing at Valencia in Spain on Monday.

Having seen early shakedown plans for his new Ferrari F10 abandoned because of bad weather in Italy over the weekend, Massa gave an early indication about the promise of his team’s 2010 challenger with a strong run early on.

Although testing times are not necessarily truly representative of form, Ferrari will at least be encouraged by the fact that the car has appeared to hit the ground running on the opening day of this three-day test.

Less than two-tenths behind Massa’s best lap of 1m13.088s was Pedro de la Rosa in the BMW Sauber C29, showing that his team’s lack of sponsors and BMW works involvement have not been a hindrance to the efforts made over the winter to produce the new car.

Third fastest Nico Rosberg Read the rest of this entry »