Something has been missing - Massa

Facing the media in the FIA Press Conference today, Felipe Massa was seated next to Lewis Hamilton and the first question the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro driver faced concerned their battle in Malaysia last Sunday.

"I had a chance to try and pass him and so I had to try," said Felipe Massa about his attempts to get by the McLaren man, which eventually ended up with the F2007 going off the track. "In general, something has been missing since the start of the year. In the first race I was not lucky and then in Sepang I had a bad start and in F1 today, it is very difficult to pass. I was able to get close at least to Lewis because he made a slight mistake, but later in the race, I could never get past Heidfeld because he never made a mistake."

Looking forward to this weekend, Massa has put past disappointments behind him and is hoping for better. "I feel very positive about the Bahrain event. We had a good test here in the winter when the car behaved quite well and we have a good package." Last weekend, Massa made a bad start from pole position. "But honestly at the Sepang track, left or right side does not make much difference, but here at Sakhir it is important to start from the left hand side because off the racing line is very dirty."

Massa was also asked if the team would miss Michael Schumacher's skill at developing a car through the year. "Of course, Michael was a great driver in terms of car development," admitted the Brazilian. "But I think now we are also doing a good job of developing the car, we are working well as a team, together with Kimi. I feel this is going well and we are moving in the right direction." Felipe also said he had spoken to Michael after the last race, but when pushed as to what was said, he smiled and explained it was "confidential, but we had a nice chat."