Working day and night - Massa
After China, Scuderia Ferrari driver Felipe Massa stopped off in Dubai and then Abu Dhabi to make some personal appearances on behalf of team partners and today, he was on duty in the Sakhir paddock, facing the media.
“Of course, I am disappointed after China and am well aware that we are yet to score any points,” said Massa, when asked the obvious question after his retirement last Sunday. “But I am not letting that stop me concentrating on my job in order to improve the situation.”
After running without the Kinetic Energy Recovery System in Shanghai, this key element is about to make a return to the Scuderia garage. “We will use the KERS again tomorrow and I hope it all works fine, with no problems arising and if that’s the case, we will use it for the whole weekend,” confirmed Felipe. “We understood the problems we experienced with the system and we feel ninety percent confident enough now to put it back on the car. At this track, the data suggests KERS could be worth four tenths of a second per lap, going up to half a second in qualifying trim. Where are we aiming to be on the grid? If I knew that, it would be easy! But maybe if the track suits our car and the tyres work well for us, maybe we can be in better shape than last weekend. But we don’t know and it’s possible that we will struggle again. Within the team everyone is motivated to get out of this situation, working day and night to improve the car and to overcome the reliability problems we have faced.” All the talk this season has been about KERS and the double diffuser, but in China, first and second place went to a car without either of these elements. Felipe was asked what this meant. “It’s simple, it means you could say they have the best car. However, you must think that Red Bull has won only one race in the wet and Brawn has won two grands prix and scored points every time, using the double diffuser. Also, looking at Vettel’s fuel load at the start, it might be that he would not have won the race if it had been dry. One cannot yet compare the other cars to the Brawn as it was the rain that changed everything in Shanghai. We have to wait for a few more races to have a clear picture which is the best car, but at the moment, the Brawn is the car to beat.”
The Scuderia and its drivers have stated they will bring new aerodynamic parts for the Spanish Grand Prix, but unlike in previous years, there will be no prior track testing of these new elements, as in-season testing is now banned. “It should not be a problem” reckoned Felipe. “Usually, in the case of aero modifications, if they have been validated in the wind tunnel, they work at the race track. The main downside of not testing is not linked to performance but more to reliability in my opinion.”
