Massa-Raikkonen. What a fight!
The after Schumi era gets under way with the two Ferrari drivers as favorites on the same level. The Brazilian begins the fight: “I am ready to win”. The Finnish responds: “We will have a great fight, it will last all season”.
MELBOURNE (Australia), March 14th 2007 - Two drivers on the same level, competing for the World Drivers’ Championship with Ferrari in the first year after Schumi retired. Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen are ready and can’t wait to prove it. It starts on Sunday, with the Australian GP which is the first event from the 2007 F1 World Championship.
Felipe Massa is optimistic. The Brazilian is more mature and accumulated lots of experience living in Michael Schumacher’s shadow and now launches his challenge for the World Championship. “The long test session we had in Bahrain gave us great results in terms of the F2007’s reliability - said the Brazilian to the official Ferrari Site - but also regarding the team’s synergy when simulating a race weekend. Some observers focused on the fact that I was faster than Kimi, but i don’t think that mattered. Private tests are one thing, races are another”. Compared to a year ago the situation has changed. Massa has a positive season behind him, especially highlighted by two victories. “Last year lots of people was skeptical regarding my potential. Now, after 12 months, with a few victories and a few pole-positions in my bag, I believe to have changed a lot and to have become mentally stronger. In the last two years I acquired experience. I still have a lot to learn but this is certainly a good moment for me and my career.” 2007 is a rich year in changes to the regulations. “I am happy to drive more on Fridays, so I can be better prepared for qualifying and the race. In the last few years, we weren’t running a lot in the first day, in order to conserve the engine and this wasn’t good for the public either, which will now see a lot more action on track. In other words, we will al work in the same conditions while until today only the third drivers were able to push to to maximum in Friday free practices. The unique tyre supplier represents the fairest solution for the contestants and that will be better for the spectators.”
The start is at Melbourne. “It’s a technically challenging track, I like it a lot - continues Massa -. I was always competitive there, but unlucky with two accidents at the start.” Kimi Raikkonen doesn’t despise the Australian circuit either. “On that track I got good results. However I never had a weekend totally problem free.” said the Finnish driver. “I am not preoccupied and surely it wasn’t the last tests that told me Felipe Massa is a fast driver. The fight between us will be very close but I don’t forsee any problems. There are small differences in the settings we need [for the Car] but not that much difference like in previous years. The title? I can’t tell, the real test, races, are yet to be started. Probably BMW and McLaren will be our biggest competitors, while about Renault I don’t know at what level they are because in the last day in Bahrain I saw them going very well but during the winter they weren’t particularly in good shape.”
Even ignoring the winter testing form, I think there is a chance that Massa will have the upper hand on Kimi for the first few races. Felipe will be carrying a lot of last year’s confidence and momentum in to this new season, whilst Raikkonen will be coming to terms with a new car, new team and new tyres. I expect the Finn to make up the ground quickly though.
F1punter said this on March 15th, 2007 at 11:07 am