Massa: We are in the top group

Massa was extremely satisfied when he met the journalists at the end of his second day of testing here on the Circuit de Catalunya. "We did what we had planned to do at the beginning of this month of testing: we’re very happy with the work done,” Massa said. "We wanted a competitive car and I think we’ve achieved our goal. We‘ve reached a good level of reliability, which is very important.”

"It’s difficult to say who worked best,” Felipe Massa continued. “Today the time sheet says Hamilton, but we’re all very close together, it’s just tenths of a second. I am very satisfied with the car, when we simulated the qualifying and when we drove with lots of fuel on board. I think that we’re part of the group, who did well in these tests, something you could see on this last day of testing, when many simulated the qualifying. I don’t agree at all with those who say we’re the strongest: I think we’re there, together with some other teams. I can’t say that we’re going to Bahrain to win, but I know that we’ll fight for it. We had several aerodynamic updates here, which improved the car’s performance. We now have to continue working in this direction. It’s important to be ahead at the end of the year, not now. The same thing is true regarding the car: I was lucky to be able to drive several very strong Ferrari single-seaters and if the F10 is the best I’ve ever driven I’ll only know after the race in Abu Dhabi!"

After 15 days of testing in Spain one unknown factor is still there: the tyres’ behaviour under high temperatures, like those the teams will find in Bahrain and Malaysia during the first part of the season. “The situation might be a little bit different, but during these sessions we got a good idea of how the tyres are working this year. Maybe a couple of times, like yesterday, it was a little too cold for a certain type of tyre, but we could still collect many useful information, which will help us during the Championship. Their behaviour will also influence the strategies: if there is lots of wear, maybe there will be more stops, but we’ll see that race after race. This year, because the fuel aspect has been liberalised, the moments of the pit stops will be even more unpredictable and will influence the results much more.”