Felipe Massa Jerez test notes 2008-12-11

Massa: "Great to be back on the track!"

Jerez de la Frontera, 11th December - After yesterday's "starter" in the afternoon today Felipe Massa opened the throttle together with Kimi Raikkonen on the third and last day of tests for the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit. Felipe's menu consisted today of the same ingredients as the one his teammate had to digest. They were both working on the best possible set up for the slicks used in 2009.

During the short lunch break Felipe met with journalists. They spoke about many different things, from getting back behind the wheel of a single-seater to the near future of Formula One. This is what the Brazilian driver had to say: "I'm glad to be back on the track. My holidays went well, but after a while you simply get annoyed and I wanted to see how the cars run with the new tyres. I have to say that there's quite a difference, especially when you're running on used tyres. Then they are quite difficult to handle, especially in oversteering and with the lower downforce we have. But it has to be said that these cars are still hybrids, so they're not set up in the perfect way. I'm sure that with next year's car the situation will be completely different. Nevertheless it's really fun driving with slicks. The cars will be uglier? Well I think that's true. It seems that we're going back ten years. But in the end it's not beauty that counts, is it?"

Felipe spoke again about the emotional final at the Brazilian GP, at the end of one of the most intense seasons in the history of Formula One. "I live through the images of the race, especially the last laps. I think that it was difficult for my family and my friends to go from absolute joy to this great disappointment in just a couple of seconds. I was in the car and concentrated on driving and I knew that with the rain everything could happen. I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about it. I don't like to life in the past. I prefer looking ahead, learning from what is happening to me. We did our best, we won the race. When you loose because of a single point there's hardly anything to regret. There were many things we could have done in a different way or even better or which could have gone a different way."

Obviously he also spoke about the situation in Formula One: "There's a crisis for all of us. Not only in our sport. Honda's retirement was a nasty surprise. But now it's important to continue, working together and finding the right solutions. Formula One has to remain a team competition, but still considering reality."

-credit: ferrari