Spanish GP - Massa: “a nice welcome from the Spanish people”
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Montmelo, 6 May – On a cool and cloudy Thursday afternoon, with a few drops of rain falling on the Catalunya circuit, for the first time this season, Felipe Massa met the media in the surroundings of the team motorhome, rather than the improvised offices at the first four races outside Europe. “We have introduced updates to the car, mainly from the aero point of view, especially with the “famous” blown rear wing, which we will try in free practice here,” began Felipe when asked about how the F10 has changed since the Chinese Grand Prix. “I don’t think it matters that we are only starting with this type of wing now, because for the moment, only one other team has made good use of it, so I don’t feel we are having to catch up in this area.
After all, it is just one element in the package. I hope it gives us some more performance. But most of the teams will have also introduced updates, so let’s hope we have made a bigger step forward than the rest! Also, as you have heard, we have made a change to the engines to deal with a small reliability issue and that will definitely be important for us.”
Asked to pick Scuderia Ferrari’s main rival for this weekend, the Brazilian came up with the usual list: “so far this season, we have seen that Red Bull has been very strong in qualifying but we cannot rule out McLaren and possibly also Mercedes are getting stronger.” Here in Barcelona, Felipe was asked if it bothered him that his new team-mate seemed to get more media attention. “We are both strong drivers and remember I have had Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen as my team-mates here in Ferrari,” he replied. “I will not be driving around here to see who the fans are cheering for in the grandstands and in any case, I have always had a nice welcome from the Spanish people.
I will just be trying to do the best job I can. I feel very at home with this team and I don’t mind if there is more talk about my team-mate, who of course is very popular here in Spain for his home race. The important thing is that we work well together to develop and improve the car so we both get good results.”