Massa: I am confident about the work we have done in these past few weeks
3 May, 2012
Felipe Massa was on duty for Ferrari on day two of testing at Mugello
May.3 (Apex) Felipe Massa had his turn in the cockpit of the Ferrari F2012 on the second day of official F1 testing at Mugello on Wednesday, but remains confident despite not getting to sample a batch of upgrade parts earmarked for the team’s troublesome, off pace car.
Felipe in good spirits
On Wednesday Massa took over the cockpit from Fernando Alonso who was on duty on the first day and again today, the final day – the Spaniard set to run some of the new development upgrades which the team hope will see them back at the sharp end of proceedings.
The car driven by Massa, at Mugello, was virtually the same as the one the team raced in Bahrain, as he explained after his day behind the wheel, “The car was in almost identical trim to the one I drove in Bahrain. We worked mainly on the tyres, on studying their behaviour over short and long distances and also looked at a handful of aerodynamic components, as well as various different set-ups on the car. We got through almost the entire programme and tomorrow (Thursday) it will be down to Fernando to experiment with some of the new parts we have prepared for the start of the European season.”
Felipe at the wheel of the Ferrari F2012
Massa, who did 106 laps on the day, said, “It’s obvious we need to make a good step forward as soon as possible if we want to be competitive. I am confident about the work we have done in these past few weeks, but we won’t really know if we have reached our targets until we get to Barcelona.”
“We can be sure the other teams have also worked a lot, so if we want to make progress, we will have had to make a significant leap forward in performance terms. It is a very long championship, but we need to make up ground in the next three to five races if we want to achieve our goals and this is a key moment to improve our situation,” added the winner of 11 grands prix.
Meanwhile, while Massa pounded around the Ferrari owned circuit in the Tuscan hills, Alonso was whisked off to Maranello where he met with Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo and team principal Stefano Domenicali.
The team pointed out on their website: “Back at the factory, everyone is pushing right to the very last moment on the design and production of new parts. Every extra available work day is an asset not to be wasted.”
Subbed by AJN.
Related posts:
- Teams geared up for intensive three days of testing at Mugello
- Massa: A lot of work to do to fine tune the Ferrari F2012
- Massa allows Alonso past to win German GP
- Massa: Important to work well together
- Massa: “Alonso and I will work well together”
