Question: Just talk about the battle that kept us so entertained in Australia.
Felipe Massa: What Jenson said is what I think as well. I was able to fight very hard, to keep him behind but it was not easy. I think in some places where he was very quick on the straights I was able to use very well the KERS, not to allow him to pass me completely on the straight and to keep on the inside line. Not just the main straight, but also in other corners. Then he passed me on the wrong side, so he was penalised. I expect him, to be honest, to give back the position. Two corners after Fernando (Alonso) passed me and it was a little bit more difficult for him to give back the position. I think it was a nice fight.
Question: Felipe, two pole positions here but actually your best results have usually come from when you’ve started at the back of the grid.
Felipe Massa: Yeah. It’s a track I enjoy so I’ve twice started on pole here and it’s true that in the race the results have not been great compared to qualifying. Last year was the opposite. I was almost last in qualifying, on the grid, because it was raining. We went out at the wrong time so we qualified in Q1, but I drove a very good race and finished seventh, so I hope this time qualifying and race together will be a little bit better. We concentrate on doing a good job.
Question: You’ve expressed some worries about the effects of DRS here. How do you think that and KERS is going to affect the race here?
Felipe Massa: No, it was also that people said maybe the FIA was thinking of using (allowing DRS on) both straights, and my opinion is that both straights are very close together, so it wasn’t very fair, that you can use the DRS in two places which are very close. In my opinion, in this direction it would have been very easy to overtake, and what happened in Australia, which was a good fight, as well, when we were even able to fight using the KERS in different places - I don’t see the same picture if we use it on these two straights, so that was my only opinion, but I think we’re just going to use it on the main straight, so it’s different to what people were saying.
Question: That decision has been made has it?
Felipe Massa: Yes.
Question: Felipe, did you understand, you, your team and engineer, your main problem in Australia?
Felipe Massa: Well, we understand many things. For sure, we didn’t have the pace we expected in Australia and last week and this week we’ve been analysing the direction which we should start here. My hope is that we’re going to have a different car, a more competitive car, in qualifying, where we saw a big difference compared to Red Bull and in the race as well. It’s also true that I was a little bit too aggressive on the set-up and my degradation was a little bit higher than I expected, so that is also another point to think about for this track where we see very high temperatures as well, so we need to change the direction on set-up a little bit, just for the tyres as well.
Question: Felipe, coming back to what you said about the DRS and the KERS, considering the long straights here, are you going to use the KERS in a different way than if there was no DRS?
Felipe Massa: For sure, in qualifying you always try to use the KERS in the places where you gain the most time. In the race, it’s a little bit different, because if you are fighting with somebody else you try to use the KERS in places where it’s easier to lose position. So you are always changing the places where you use the KERS, even looking how close another car is to you, and if you are behind, you try to use KERS in places where you have more chances to overtake, so for sure in the race you change many times.
Question: Felipe, during the winter testing you were very confident with the Pirelli tyres. After the first Grand Prix, do you have the same level of confidence?
Felipe Massa: Yes, sure, confident that we can have a better weekend. The first race was not great for us, we didn’t have the result we expected but I don’t think it was just due to the tyres. I think we expected better speed but anyway, I’m confident that we can get everything together here.
Question: Red Bull is going to user KERS for the first time really here. Are you terrified, are you simply afraid of it, are they going to kill the championship?
Felipe Massa: I think that’s a little bit early to kill the championship, no? Anyway, it’s always difficult to speak about a different car. For sure, in our car, if you don’t use KERS, you lose a little bit of lap time, so maybe it’s the same for Red Bull, so maybe they will improve even more, but it’s very difficult really to express how much they will improve or not because you don’t have a clear picture of the Red Bull car. But anyway, in my opinion, if you use KERS, it can be better.
Question: Felipe, there’s a lot of talk about hot and humid conditions. I know Jenson and Nico do a lot of triathlons to train, Jarno does a lot of biking, but you’re a Paulista, no, from Sao Paulo? It helps?
Felipe Massa: Yeah. For sure Sao Paulo is not really, really very, very hot compared to other places in Brazil. For sure, it’s more humid in the north of Brazil, like Manaós, for example, is like here, but in Sao Paulo, even during the race weekend, sometimes it’s even cold. But anyway, it’s a hot country so I prefer the hot conditions compared to cold conditions because I prefer hot places. But anyway, I need to train, you need to train very hard for this race because it’s very humid, so you lose a lot of liquid during the race and you need to train, so I was training.
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