Great motivation and encouragement from my fans - Massa
There were two reasons for Felipe Massa being in Thursday's FIA press conference: firstly, he is Brazilian and secondly, he is one of two drivers still in the fight for the Drivers' World Championship.
Most of the questions he faced highlighted these two aspects, starting with the fact that fighting for the F1 title was not really very different to any other. "When you are racing it doesn't matter whether you are in Formula One or in go-karts, whatever category you are," said the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver. "When you get inside the car you are thinking about racing. You are not thinking I am in Formula One, it is the most important form of motorsport. You don't think about that, you think about racing. You think about doing your best and fighting, so for me it is exactly the same fighting for the championship in Formula One or for victory or whatever if you are fighting in a go-kart. When you are in a go-kart you want to win. It is your dream. Your motivation is to win that race or that championship. You don't think about Formula One as you live for that moment. That's why it is the same now. You want to win now. For sure, you have much more expectation and pressure but when you are driving you don't think about that."
Massa's's family members are often with him at the races and the Paulista explained why this is important to him. "I think having the family together is very important. I have always had my family together in my career. In go-kart and the other categories it was a little bit more difficult as I didn't have so much money for them to go to the race. But at least I always had them very close to me, talking on the phone almost every day. I think it is very important as when you are happy in your private life, when you have a good family, I think it makes your professional life even better. When you get inside the car you don't put in all the problems that you have outside. They don't come to every race but they come a lot and I feel very happy. For sure I don't follow so much the advice from my mum, otherwise I would go very slow!"
Even if Felipe is at a points disadvantage going into this race, he does have the advantage of racing at home. "This track is part of my story," he explained. "I started here, I grew up in this area. I started when I was eight over the other side, at the go-kart track, and I started my career in open-wheelers here in '98. I love the circuit. It's a very special circuit for me. It's a circuit that gives you a lot of pleasure to drive. Always when you are at home and you have a nice circuit to drive, you always have extra motivation, extra good energy, so I think it's even nicer to race here at Interlagos, so let's try to do a great job."
Massa can count on great support from the crowd. "They are very excited, they try to push you, trying to put you in the best position. For sure the position is quite difficult but I have a great time in my country. I have great motivation, great encouragement from my fans and that's fantastic. You go out to restaurants, in the road and everybody looks to you and congratulates you and gives a lot of good energy for the weekend. I think that's a great feeling."
