Great memories of Monza - Massa

Felipe Massa does not get long to enjoy the fact he was declared the winner of the Belgian Grand Prix, as just a few days later the F1 paddock has shifted to Monza for this Sunday's Italian Grand Prix and as the winner of the last race, the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver was on the panel in this afternoon's FIA Press Conference.

The Brazilian is relatively confident about having another good weekend at the team's home race. "This is a track which is completely different to any other track for how you prepare your car in terms of aerodynamics. I think we had quite a good test. I really hope that we can be very competitive. McLaren showed for sure a very good performance on the test and also last year, so it will be a big competition for sure. But I think we are in the right direction in terms of preparing for this race and see if we can start on Friday and Saturday morning with a reasonable set up."

Past statistics do not tell a positive story for Massa as he has never finished better than ninth, but when asked about this, the Ferrari man laughed it off: "But before Formula One I won every race I did here, so it is not bad," he pointed out." "And I really like the circuit. As I said I have great memories of Monza in the other categories, in Formula Renault, in Formula 3000, I always had very strong races here. Unfortunately in Formula One... last year it could have been a second place. We were doing a good race but then I had a mechanical problem in the car. I like the track and I am really motivated and optimistic that we can do a good job this weekend."

Last weekend's result saw Massa close to within 2 points of the series leader and he is keen to see how the final five races pan out. "I think it is going to being pretty competitive. I think when you see that there is a two points' difference and we have five races ahead of us, everything is really completely open. We have 50 points available in the championship which is quite a big number of points, compared to the difference, so the battle is hundred percent open. We saw this year that you have some races where maybe Ferrari was a little bit better. You had other races where perhaps McLaren were a little bit better. It's really difficult to make a clear comment on which track we maybe can have an advantage or not, or maybe if we have an advantage or if they have an advantage. I think it will be very competitive all through the races."