Interview With Felipe Massa
Show your support.
Buzz this article up.
Oct 31, 2008
Shell
Question: What do you think of this particular track (Brazil) and how is it for your car?
Felipe Massa: Well, first of all this (circuit) is part of my story. I started here, I grew up in this area. I started when I was eight over the other side, at the go-kart track, and I started my career in open-wheelers here in ’98. I love the circuit. It’s a very special circuit for me. It’s a circuit that, as Lewis said, gives you a lot of pleasure to drive. Always when you are at home and you have a nice circuit to drive, you always have extra motivation, extra good energy, so I think it’s even nicer to race here at Interlagos, so let’s try to do a great job.
I think our car can be quite strong here, because in the past we were very strong here. If you look at this season, on some tracks we were stronger, some tracks McLaren was stronger. We were struggling a lot at Hockenheim, for example, and they were very quick, but we were very quick at the next race, so I don’t think that because China wasn’t a great performance for us that here it will be the same. I think this is a track that suits our car quite well. We like to race with these tyres, so I think we can be very strong.
Question: You’ve participated in a lot of events during this Brazilian Grand Prix week and you have had the chance to talk to some fans. How do you see their expectations? Does the Brazilian crowd know that your mission is very difficult here at Interlagos?
Felipe Massa: Yeah, for sure they know but you know how fans are, they are very excited, they try to push you, trying to put you in the best position. For sure the position is quite difficult but I have a great time in my country. I have great motivation, great encouragement from my fans and that’s fantastic. You go out to restaurants, in the road and everybody looks to you and congratulates you and gives a lot of good energy for the weekend. I think that’s a great feeling, it’s a great time to be here, first of all, fighting for the championship in my home country and secondly in a good position in my career. That’s already a great feeling.
Question: We in Britain see Lewis as a great story of someone who has come up from the bottom but you’ve had hard times as well. Does it seem strange now, when the whole country is expecting you, do you think back to those hard times and what sort of struggles you and your family had to make?
Felipe Massa: I think everybody has their own story. The beginning of my career was not like the beginning of Lewis’s career but I think we grew up a lot and we learn so many things with our mistakes, with our difficulties in the past, even in Formula One. If I had to go back, I wouldn’t change my career because I think I learned so much and when you get here, especially at the beginning of the career, when you have a bad result and nobody expects anything from you and then you suddenly improve and you get into the position to fight for the championship, you’re driving the best dream car which every driver would love to drive, I think that’s a fantastic feeling, especially when you look back and you’re here now and you’re having great expectations from your country, you have great energy. I have a great feeling with the Brazilian people and that’s great. I think it’s a dream come true. But we always want more, that’s our life. When you win one race, you want to win a second time. I never won the championship but I think it’s the same: when you win the first time, you push even harder to win the second time. I think that’s part of the mentality of sports people.
Question: It’s 17 years since the last Brazilian won the Formula One World Championship. You were around ten at that time. Do you still remember that, can you remember how your feelings were then and did you believe at that time that you would ever continue the same story?
Felipe Massa: Yeah, for sure I remember Senna winning the championships, fighting for some others in which he was very competitive as well. As a Brazilian, Senna was like a kind of god here in Brazil, and before that was Nelson’s father. I think we have a great country in terms of building drivers and I would hope that we can carry on with that story. I would love to win the championship, that’s why I’m here, that’s what I’m working for, doing my best to achieve my dreams but also trying to keep up the nice story that Brazil has in Formula One. It will be fantastic.
Question: What does it mean to have your families with you? What do you draw from them?
Felipe Massa: I think having the family together is very important. I have always had my family together in my career. In go-kart and the other categories it was a little bit more difficult as I didn’t have so much money for them to go to the race. But at least I always had them very close to me, talking on the phone almost every day. I think it is very important as when you are happy in your private life, when you have a good family, I think it makes your professional life even better. When you get inside the car you don’t put in all the problems that you have outside. I think it is always very nice. They don’t come to every race but they come a lot and I feel very happy. For sure I don’t follow so much the advice from my mum, otherwise I would go very slow!
