Massa: I don’t care any more about the Hamilton saga

Felipe Massa arrived at the track where he finished third on the podium one year ago, to tackle his usual meeting with the press. The first topic? The continuing Lewis Hamilton saga of course. “I don’t care any more about this and will carry on doing my job as usual,” began the Ferrari man. “But now, I am only looking ahead, thinking of the next race. Nothing that happened in the last couple of races was of my doing, therefore the only thing that would be interesting would be to see some consistency in the penalties imposed for driving errors.”

In Suzuka, Felipe qualified well and was heading for a good race before the tangle with Hamilton, but this did not mean the Brazilian was automatically optimistic about this weekend. “It’s true the car was more competitive in the last race than in Singapore, Spa or Monza,” he said. “I think it depends on the race track, with some being better for us, others more difficult. Therefore I hope the upcoming tracks suit our car so we can be more competitive, starting here, then moving on to India which none of us knows yet. I reckon we will see high levels of tyre degradation at this race. Already, the fact the track surface will be very “green” always leads to more tyre wear, as there is less grip so the cars slide more. On top of that, we are running the Soft and the Supersoft compounds, so it will be a tough race, not just for us, but for everyone. However, I think Ferrari should be in better shape here than in Singapore, Spa and Monza. We are not sure how competitive we will be in qualifying but, with a difficult race for everyone, strategy will be very important and everything can change very quickly, which means we have every chance of getting a significant result in the race.”

Last Saturday in Suzuka, the two Ferrari drivers went out to set a lap time in Q3, while some drivers opted to stay in the garage and save tyres and Felipe was asked what could be done to guarantee the spectators see more cars in action. “For us, there was no advantage to be had in not going out, given the low degradation level of our tyres. However, the only way you can make everyone do a timed lap is to change the rules, because until that happens, everyone is within their rights to save tyres by staying in the garage, especially if they feel they will do no better than ninth or tenth place.”

Finally, asked if he, Webber and Hamilton had to ask themselves questions in the final part of the season, Felipe was clear about his own intentions: “we have nothing to ask, we must only do something,” he said. “It’s true our team-mates have done a better job so I hope I can be more competitive in these last four races, which is also important with an eye on next year.”