Felipe Massa Jerez test II notes day two

A not very fruitful day for Massa Jerez de la Frontera, 18 February - Lucio Battisti, one of Italy's famous singer-songwriters, asked in a song from 1980 how an arduous day might taste. The drivers and the members of the Formula 1 teams, who have ...

A not very fruitful day for Massa

Jerez de la Frontera, 18 February - Lucio Battisti, one of Italy's famous singer-songwriters, asked in a song from 1980 how an arduous day might taste. The drivers and the members of the Formula 1 teams, who have been living in the rain for the last two days here in Jerez might have found the answer. There has been lots of rain during the last days here in Andalusia on and off the track. Today there was even some strong wind, disturbing all the drivers' workflows.

The Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro's programme had to be modified according to today's track conditions and in the afternoon the team dedicated the time to training race procedures, such as pit stops.

Felipe Massa concluded his second day of testing, the sixth in total of the preparations for the upcoming Championship, with 92 laps, the fastest in a time of 1.28.879, driven in the morning.

In the morning a mechanical problem forced the Brazilian to stop for two hours at the box. "Those were no good two days, like the ones last week," Felipe said at the end of the day. "Yesterday and today the track was almost always completely wet. Nevertheless driving many kilometres was useful for the reliability and for fixing some small problems. And we are all in the same boat, so we shouldn't complain. Obviously those who didn't have many possibilities to drive on the dry, might be penalised, because there are only six days of testing left. From this point of view I'm really happy that our team has done more laps than any other, but obviously I hope that we'll have sun in Barcelona!"

"The car is set up very well, on the wet and on the dry," Felipe added. "This morning's problem? Nothing to worry about. We know what we have to do to fix it."

Felipe was asked about the competitors he has seen so far on the track. "I'd say that Red Bull has a good car, but that's no surprise considering how they concluded last season. I expect to fight against them, McLaren and Mercedes, but it's still too early to say anything concrete. For now we're concentrating on our work."