Fresh F1

Felipe Massa analyzes the causes for the disappointing result from Sepang: “In Malaysia we made mistakes at the beginning, then it was difficult to recover. The attack on Hamilton? I would do it again. Now I am only thinking about the next race”

SAKHIR (Bahrein), April 10th 2007 - Felipe Massa responds. He does it with a half promise, after reviewing Ferrari’s problems at Sepang. Massa is going To Dubai for a couple of days before arriving in Bahrein. “What happened at Sepang - he says to the official Ferrari website - was regrettable. We were already fast on Friday, then on Saturday was on pole, but the Sunday race did not yield the expected results and to be honest we still do not know why”.

SUPER McLAREN - “A part of the problems could come from the car components and the car setup - confesses Mass - but it is clear that McLaren has made important steps forward. Our race speed offred only a glimpse of what could have been, because both I and Kimi were caught behind traffic for the greater part of the race. Naturally this would not have happen ed considering that I started in pole position and Kimi in third position. It wasn’t like we had expected but after a start in which we have lost positions, it was difficult to recover. Hamilton made his fuel stop on the 20th lap while I had made mine on the 17th, meaning we ran with nearly the same fuel load during first part of the race.”

COERCED PASS ATEMPT - Massa goes on by reliving the moments of his attack on Hamilton, the key to its ill-fated Grand Prix: “the only certainty that I had was that, having lost positions to Alonso and Lewis, I knew that if I had not passed Hamilton as soon as possible, my contest would have been finished. In that moment maximum result I could have achieved was a third place. Considering that Lewis has made his refueling stop three laps after me I could not have never passed him at the end of a pit stop. The only possibility to pass ahead of him was to make it happen on track, if I did not want watch the rear of one of the McLarens for all my race”.

RESPONSABILITY - “If you accuse me of having made an error for this, yes, I made an error - responds Massa - but otherwise I would stayed behind for all the race. I do not mourn trying to pass Hamilton and if in future it happened again, I would try again, hoping to pass this time! I know that from the outside one can have a different perception of the facts but given the information we had, within the single-seater, we took the right decision. Now I only want to concentrate on the next race. I will carry with me only the positive experiences from the beginning of the championship, like the pole position and as I will always try to win for me and for Ferrari. For instance the circuit of the Bahrain appeals to a lot to me: last year I lost the pole to Schumacher for a fraction of a second. Unfortunately for a wheel problem at a pit stop made me lose 50 seconds. In Bahrain however, I have always been competitive and the winter tests also confirm it. I hope indeed to get a better result next Sunday “.

Source: Gazzetta dello Sport

~ by Wiz Kid on April 11, 2007.