Important that we return to winning - Massa

Fresh from a holiday at home in Brazil and in Miami, Felipe Massa met the media yesterday in the Istanbul paddock and began by looking back 3-weeks to the Hungarian GP. "It is important not to repeat the mistakes we made in Budapest which was not a good weekend for us," began Massa. "But the championship is still open because of what happened. In any case, although it is true that on a wet track we had some difficulties, in the dry, and even just as the track began to dry, we had the advantage over our rivals."

Massa knows that the recipe for success in the championships is simple. "This weekend it is important that we return to winning and having both of us on the podium to bring home as many points as possible," he commented. "That is our priority and we will be doing our utmost to get it done." Earlier in the season, Felipe had not always brought home as many points as were available to him but that changed in more recent races. "At the start of the year I had a few problems, not just myself but the way I interacted with the team, but then we started to work better together race by race," he said by way of explanation. "The results started to come then and the experience of working with a top team also improved me race by race."

One journalist suggested that the FIA's decision to ban mass dampers implied that the Ferrari men had been fighting an "illegal" Renault, but Massa did not feel the Anglo-French team had done anything wrong. "I think the FIA sometimes takes decisions to ensure that teams do not work in certain ways. For example, earlier this year, we had to change the way our rear wing functioned but there was no suggestion that we had been illegal. We found a way around it and that will happen with the mass dampers too, but I have to say that obviously it will be good for us if the team that suffers most from not being allowed to use this system turns out to be Renault!"

Asked if he felt this would be a difficult weekend because Ferrari did not do well here last year, Massa reckoned there was no reason for history to repeat itself. "You cannot say that because we did not go well here last year the same will happen again now. We have seen several races where we did not go well in 2005 turning out fine this time. There is no point looking to the past, you have to look at the present situation. Over the past few races we have proved to be very strong and we must try and continue in that way and keep finishing ahead of our rivals." In order to help Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro achieve that target, Felipe also revealed that there will be a few modifications to the 248 F1: "we have a new design of turning vane, and modified rear brake ducts which should bring us a slight advantage."