Massa: “In Montreal we expect to be stronger”

Felipe Massa is about to leave for Montreal recharged and optimistic after the good race in Monaco, which was an opportunity for him to make up for a disappointing start to the season.

The Ferrari driver hopes that Monaco marks a new beginning for his championship: “I think Monaco was a good weekend for me, because I was competitive from the start of free practice” declared the Brazilian. “Throughout the weekend I was consistent, in free practice, in qualifying and in the race. I found myself particularly comfortable with the car, we worked in the right direction to adapt it to my driving style and I hope that this positive trend can continue, starting from the race in Canada and until the end of the championship".

Massa explains the reasons that led him to be competitive again: “The first cause is that the set-up required for Monaco is very different from that required by other tracks, but even if the street circuit is a story in itself, we can at least try to follow the direction taken there and try to make it work on other tracks. While I admit it's an unusual situation, perhaps as far as I'm concerned it's the best direction to take for the F2012 to work well. It is also true that in Monaco there are fewer points where high lateral forces are exerted on the car, which is the weak point of our car. We also tried this approach on the simulator, but it's not always easy to get a clear answer there, which is why we need to continue experimenting on the racing fields.".
For the moment the Paulista has dismissed the insistent rumors that spoke of his replacement. “Now I feel decidedly more confident, I feel stronger even if not too happy: it's true that Monaco was a good race but after the work done since the first free practice I expected to be able to fight for the podium. We had the chance to do that, we had quite good pace, but a better performance in qualifying would have improved our chances for Sunday. It was very positive compared to the start of the season, but we can't be satisfied with it, now we have to work a lot if we want to achieve something more. If we find the right direction, I know what I can do.".

As for this weekend in Montreal, Massa hopes to do well on another peculiar track with unique characteristics. “There are a lot of chicanes, so you need a car that is good on the curbs and, despite the many similarities, compared to Monaco, Montreal needs good speed on the long straight. We need a fair compromise with traction coming out of the chicanes, because you can't simply put more aerodynamic load on the car and then have too much resistance on the fast straights. In Monaco the tires never had high degradation, even in the first test session, and this surprised us a lot. This weekend we will have the same tyres, Soft and Supersoft, and it will be essential to understand their performance from Friday to start planning our race strategy. However, I really like going to Canada and this year, for the thirtieth anniversary of Gilles Villeneuve's death, it will be a very important weekend for Montreal. Ferrari has always had a lot of support there, partly also for Gilles, and this should be a further incentive for the Scuderia to do well for all the fans. The Canadian people love Formula 1 and Montreal always gives us a great welcome, so we hope we can repay them with a good result. Naturally, our plan to improve the F2012 continues steadily, because even a little more performance can mean better placings on the grid and in the race. We will have some updates this weekend. Friday will be very intense, because we will combine the evaluation of the new elements with the preparation work for the race. We hope that the car is even stronger than in Monaco and that we can continue to bring home points to help the team.", concluded the Cavallino driver.

Lorena Bianchi