Felipe Massa

Felipe Massa reckons he is in perfect shape to get down to work with his new Ferrari from the start of next month after completing a day behind the wheel of an F2008 at Barcelona on Friday.

The Brazilian completed around 90 laps of the Circuit de Catalunya at the wheel of a two-year old car, which was fitted with demonstration tyres because of Formula 1′s testing ban rules.

No times were issued after his run, but Massa was delighted with how the day had gone.

“It was a perfect way to optimise my form here in Barcelona,” he said.

“I’m really happy that I had this new opportunity to get behind the wheel of a Formula 1 single-seater on a race track. I can’t wait to sit in the new car and get stuck in.”

Massa will be present at the unveiling of Ferrari’s 2010 challenger at Maranello next Thursday, prior to its first day of testing at Valencia from February 1.

Felipe Massa is to test a 2008 Ferrari at Spanish Grand Prix venue Catalunya on Friday.

The session will be the third time that the Brazilian has got behind the wheel of an old Ferrari during his recovery from the head injuries sustained at the Hungaroring last summer. He has previously driven an F2007 chassis at Fiorano and Mugello.

Ferrari is already in action at Barcelona this week as its Clienti department is giving MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi two days of running in an F2008. Massa will then take over the car, which is running on GP2 tyres to comply with the Formula 1 testing ban, for Friday.

“As the car and the track were available I thought it would be helpful to go onto the track for a day to continue gaining confidence with the Formula 1,” Massa said.

“After the days in Fiorano and Mugello this will be a nice opportunity to get back driving on such an interesting and challenging track.”

Felipe Massa has welcomed his former team-mate Michael Schumacher’s decision to return to Formula 1 and says he has no problem with the German leaving Ferrari in order to race again with Mercedes.

Schumacher and Massa became close friends when the Brazilian was a Ferrari test driver in the early 2000s and then joined Schumacher in the race team for 2006. Massa believes Schumacher retired too soon, and that his subsequent consultancy role with Ferrari proved he could not let racing go.

“I think that when he ended his perfect career, he stopped at a difficult moment,” said Massa. “It’s always difficult to think about stopping when you’re fighting for a championship up to the last race.

“He had an incredible career, but he never stopped racing in reality – he never stayed home without racing and without doing what he had been doing in the past. So in the end he decided to return. It’s his decision, and in his place if I had wanted to race because something was missing in my life, maybe I would have taken the same decision.”

While some Ferrari fans have criticised Schumacher for Read the rest of this entry »

Felipe Massa has revealed that he quizzed Nelson Piquet Jr and Flavio Briatore about the events of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix even before the scandal broke, having always been sceptical about Piquet’s incident in that race.

Massa was leading in Singapore until the safety car came out due to Piquet’s deliberate crash. A disastrous pitstop during the caution period then delayed Massa and left him unable to score in the race.

He subsequently lost that year’s world championship to Lewis Hamilton by a single point.

Speaking to reporters at a Ferrari media event in Italy, Massa said he had put his suspicions to Piquet prior to the truth about the incident being revealed.

“I spoke to him, yeah. I spoke to him before [it became public],” said Massa. “We were going together to drive go-karts in Italy and I asked him about Singapore – I wanted to hear the right story because I was thinking that the combination [of events] was so perfect [for Renault], what happened in that race.

“And he was laughing, he didn’t want to say the truth. I said Read the rest of this entry »

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Felipe Massa is confident that he has fully recovered from his injuries after concluding his F2007 test at Mugello today.

He had begun the test yesterday but was restricted to just 30 laps poor weather. Conditions improved today and Massa was able to complete 60 laps in the Ferrari, before returning home to Brazil this evening following the birth of his son two weeks ago.

“Although I was behind the wheel of a completely different car compared to the one for next year, I had a perfect feeling, which gives me hope for the upcoming season,” he said.

“I was very quick immediately and nothing seems to have changed in my driving style compared to before the accident. I want to thank Ferrari for this present, which, together with my son, makes this Christmas even more special.”

The outing was permitted under the testing ban as Massa was using a two-year-old car on demonstration tyres. He had previously used a 2007 machine in October when he had his first run after recovering from the severe head injury that he suffered in Hungary

He was also reunited with his 2009 Ferrari for some exhibition laps at the company’s World Finals weekend at Valencia last month.