Felipe Massa

Felipe Massa says it is not too late for Ferrari to compete for this year’s world championships, but accepts that the team has a ‘lot of work’ to do following the International Court of Appeal’s decision to allow the continued use of ‘double-decker’ diffusers.

Ferrari has suffered its least most competitive start to a season since 1992, and the team has accepted that it must develop a diffuser similar to those used by Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota if it is to fight for race wins in 2009.

“For sure it won’t be easy,” said Massa in China. “We need to work very hard, we have some teams which have a different car. It won’t be so easy to catch them but I think it can be possible.

“I hope it won’t be so late. I hope it will be in good time to fight for the championship still or to win some races. But anyway we will not give up. We work very hard and I believe we can improve the car a lot.”

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Ferrari will not use its kinetic energy recovery system in this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, team boss Stefano Domenicali has announced.

The reigning constructors’ champion was one of only four teams ready to run KERS in time for the Melbourne season-opener, but has had a very poor start to the season and is currently at the foot of the points table having failed to score in the first two rounds.

Domenicali said that while Ferrari had gained performance from KERS, repeated issues with it during race weekends had forced the decision to withdraw it for now.

He explained that Kimi Raikkonen’s KERS drama at the end of the Malaysian Grand Prix would have ruled him out of the restart had one taken place.

“Because we had time, we tried to understand the problem exactly, but then it was a problem that was not good to go out with,” said Domenicali.

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Ferrari has indicated that it will be forced to ‘fundamentally’ change the design of its F60 challenger, following the FIA International Court of Appeal’s decision to reject a protest by several teams over the diffusers used by Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams.

The ICA’s verdict, announced on Wednesday, is a blow to those teams that did not pursue the design concept when they created their 2009 cars – as it is widely accepted that the double-decker diffusers have brought a performance advantage.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen suggested last week that the diffuser decision would be vital for the outcome of the world title – with his team likely to have to wait for several races before being able to fit a suitable one to their car.

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The Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA) has succeeded in boosting its membership numbers by convincing previous high-profile sceptics, including Felipe Massa and Adrian Sutil, to join the organisation.

With the GPDA having endured a difficult 2008, with world championship frontrunners Lewis Hamilton, Massa and Kimi Raikkonen not members, its chairman Pedro de la Rosa together with directors Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber worked hard throughout last winter to get the doubters back on board.

With big progress being made on the eve of the season as Hamilton signed up to the GPDA for the first time since he entered F1 in 2007, Massa and Sutil also agreed to become members at the same time.

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A hilarious moment from Malaysian Grand Prix.