Jul.25 (YallaF1.com) Felipe Massa finished second in the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim and appears to have been victim of Ferrari “team orders” which allowed his team mate Fernando Alonso through to win the race. This has created a furore and the Ferrari pair were grilled in the post race FIA press conference. Here are highlights of answers by Massa to questions directed to him during the session.

A year to the day since your accident in Hungary. A win would have been the perfect way to mark that anniversary. Did you feel you deserved a win this afternoon?
Felipe Massa: Well, I think so. The start was just fantastic and also the pace on the soft tyres was really great. Then I was struggling a little bit on the hard, but anyway it was a very good race for us.

You were told by Rob Smedley, your race engineer, that Fernando was the faster car than yourself. A couple of laps later, turn six at the hairpin, talk us through what happened?
Felipe: Well, I don’t think I need to say anything about that.

Fernando managed to get past you. Did you make a mistake? Was it under braking?
Felipe: He passed me.

Then Rob Smedley said ‘Good lad, sorry’.
Felipe: Yeah.

Did you feel that you weren’t allowed to win that race?
Felipe: No, the only thing I feel is that we are working for the team and we are doing a very good job for the team and that is the most important thing.

How pleasing is it for you that Ferrari are back up there competing with Red Bull?
Felipe: Well, I think it was a great job for the team during the last month I would say. We were pushing hard. This was a very good track for us but anyway I think we did a good job, good working inside the car, so the car became faster and faster race by race and I think that is very important for sure when you get to the track that you see your car is very, very competitive, so the best you can do is to do first and second on the track. This is what’s happened today, so I think as a team we achieved the maximum that is possible for this race.

Your view of the start. You must have been interested watching what was going off to your right.
Felipe: Well, I think the car first of all did a fantastic start. I think I prepared the tyres very well and then I just had a good grip, Sebastian not pulling away like I expected. He was a bit slower than I expected in terms of wheel spin or whatever. Then I just saw him coming to the right, so the only possibility was to go to the left, so I went to the left and then were fighting each other, so I took the chance to pass both, so it was a great start.

After that how was the pace of the car? Did you feel it was pretty perfect?
Felipe: Yeah, I think it was very good on the soft tyres. It was really good, so I could manage to put a good pace lap by lap. The tyres behaved even better than I expected, the soft in terms of degradation, especially rear degradation. Then I arrived at the time to change to the hard and I was struggling a little bit more on the hard tyres, so it was no news about that. Anyway the car was behaving after but I think I lost a little bit of pace on the hard tyres.

Then Fernando got past you. Was that your decision to let him past?
Felipe: Yeah, definitely.

Via a coded message it appears that we’ve just witnessed a clear case of team orders being handed out. To Fernando, do you feel embarrassed about taking such a win, and to Felipe do you feel angry about having to give up such a win?
Felipe: For sure, you always want to win. That’s always what we’re working for. For sure we don’t have team orders, so we just need to do the race that we can and if you see that you cannot do the race that you can, you need to think about the team. I think that’s the most important thing.

You said earlier that you lost out to Fernando on the hard tyres. How come that after you were passed, that you were doing more or less exactly the same lap times, a couple of times even faster?
Felipe: I was pushing hard as well but maybe I think he slowed down, I don’t know. He was controlling the pace.

After this afternoon, do you now think you’re the number two driver at Ferrari?
Well, I cannot say that I’m there fighting for first position in the championship. I’ve lost many points, important points, and the only thing I can say is that I know what I can do, I can win races, that’s what counts and everybody saw today that I can win races and I can be competitive. For sure, what happened today is something that has happened in many races this year: when I put on the hard tyres I struggle. This is exactly what happened in the race. On the soft tyres, I was very strong and then when we went onto the hard, I was struggling again, so there’s no news about that. So I know why sometimes I’m a little bit penalised, it’s just because of the very hard tyres that we have this year. I don’t think it’s a good thing, to be honest, because you don’t have strategies any more. Then also the grip level on hard tyres for me was always a little bit of an issue this year, and most of the races that we used these tyres I was struggling. And this is another one where I was very good on the soft tyres in the first part of the race, and then we put on the hard tyres and I was struggling again. It’s a similar issue that we have had in some races.

In a normal race do you think Fernando could overtake you?
Felipe: Well, I think I was holding in a good way anyway, but the race is long and you always have many laps, so you never know what can happen in 20 laps. So maybe yes.

You said it was your decision to let Fernando past, so my first question is why did you take this decision, as a racing driver in Formula One, and my second question is do you have any idea why Rob Smedley said sorry to you?
Felipe: No. (Regarding your first question) As I said, because I was not so strong on the hard, so we need to think about the team.

Fellow Brazilian Rubens Barrichello damaged his image a lot in Brazil when he did what you did today. Until now you had the support of the country; aren’t you worried that now after you did what Rubens did you have deeply damaged your image in Brazil?
Felipe: For sure not, for sure not. I’m very professional and I’ve showed in my career how professional I am. You are professional as well, you work for a company. I believe you are doing what you have to do, so I’m professional and today I showed how professional I am. That’s it. Print This Article

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