Question: Felipe, you’re the most successful driver in Formula One (here) with three wins from three pole positions but maybe not this weekend, depending on the rain of course?
Felipe Massa: It depends on the rain. It can be good, it can be bad. It is always a little bit of a lottery. We will have to see how it is going to be this weekend. But it is true I had great races here, winning three times in a row and starting from pole position all three times was a great feeling. I hope we can carry on in the same direction. The last two years were not great, but anyway it is a circuit I enjoy. I like to drive here. I had great times here and I hope everything is going in a similar direction.
Question: And you had a very good race in China as well. Since then, I think the team has found certain problem areas, so when do you think you can perhaps catch up the ground that has been lost?
Felipe Massa: We have been working so hard, especially during this break, which was slightly longer than normal to understand everything and I hope we understand things a little bit more compared to the last race and compared to the first, second and third race. I hope we have an interesting step that we can feel in the car especially in qualifying as qualifying we were struggling so much in the first races. In the race we always get a good pace compared to the qualifying and I hope we get better in the qualifying and we keep good pace in the race so we can fight with Red Bull which was very strong. We see. Everybody is working very hard to improve the car. It is always difficult to say how the new parts will be, but I hope we understand so many important things that makes the car stronger and we will see here, especially with this weather, as we don’t know how it is going to be as well.
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F1 Standings Ahead of Turkish Grand Prix
Question: Can you speak about turn eight and the difficulty and the pleasure of it and do you fear that your tyre will struggle at that turn?
Felipe Massa: Yeah, for sure it is a very special corner. You have a huge amount of lateral G-Force in the corner. You need a good car. You need to think about the set-up for that corner as well in this track. Interesting thing is that you have a lot of G Force but then you even have one bump in the middle of the corner that sometimes if you are a little bit too aggressive you can even lose a little bit the rear of your car. But it is a very special corner to do, especially the first part. It is more difficult. The second, the last part, is like an easy flat out corner. But it is very nice. It is a little different corner to what we are used to doing in most of the tracks and I think that makes this track quite special as well. We will see this year with the degradations that we have on the tyres that we need to take care as well.
Question: Considering the degradation of the tyres, are you more concerned about wet or dry conditions as you don’t know exactly the behaviour of the rain tyres.
Felipe Massa: We need to run, to have a clear idea. I did some laps in the rain in the winter and also when we did a filming day it was raining a lot in Fiorano as well. We ran and it was almost snowing. The grip was very low but it is better to wait to see how it is going to be here in normal conditions and we will see how these tyres work. But it is not very clear to everybody. Everybody needs to learn how it is.
Question:Felipe, here and Barcelona are two key races for Ferrari to see how this season is going to go. You have been in Ferrari for many years. How different is this year, the pressure, compared to other years in the past knowing that in the winter you have very big expectations and, so far, the results have not come?
Felipe Massa: Well, I had good years, great cars, fighting and winning since the beginning. We also had some difficult years like 2009 and how we started the season and how we saw especially Red Bull - McLaren as well - show good performance. But Red Bull, especially in qualifying, are showing they have the quickest car. Sebastian (Vettel) has won many races already, his worst result was a second. It is clear that he has got more points and it is clear that we need to have a good result and a good step now, in Barcelona and that’s what we are really pushing to have that. It is clear to see that we never give up, but the difference is quite big. We really need to have our feet on the ground and to work to improve the car. I would say more in the qualifying. In the race we show that we have a much more competitive car compared to the qualifying but we are looking at how how much points Sebastian has and the team has as well. It is important to have a good step and to be very close to fight.
Question: Felipe, you have won here three times and you have spoken how much you enjoyed this track. I think when you won it for the third time you were joking, saying you almost felt Turkish. With the threat of this race not being on the calendar so far, how much would you miss it if it wasn’t. How much does it mean to you as a driver?
Felipe Massa: As I said it is a very special place for me. I won three times, especially the first time it was a big fight with Fernando (Alonso) and Michael (Schumacher) in 2006. In 2007, it was a little bit more free the race and in 2008 I had a big fight with Lewis. It is true that it is track you always like to come. You always have a good result, good feeling and we will miss it if we are not coming here next year. I would miss it definitely as it is a place that you have some better results than you expected. It is a good place but we will see how it is going to be.
Question: We heard about you being connected to Red Bull, Nico Rosberg coming to Ferrari. What do you think?
Felipe Massa: Really, nothing to say. Since I came to Ferrari I have been answering all of these things about me going away, so there’s nothing to say really. We concentrate on doing the best we can with the car and to get all we want. It’s just one more. It always seems to be at this time, more or less, no, during the season? It’s the same as usual.
Question: In the past, the guy who had the fastest car was the guy who was winning and this year, because of the strategy - and Lewis knows this really well - you may finish fifth with the best car or first with a car that isn’t as good as the best car. Is it something that stresses you, do you like it, personally? Does it add too much pressure to you and you would rather go back to the old system?
Felipe Massa: In the fastest car you have more possibilities to win, compared to the others, which we maybe didn’t see in the last race but we saw that Sebastian won most of the races. But anyway, I think that depending on the situation with the tyres, with the strategies. I heard Page so many good things about the last race. All of you guys were really impressed with the race, really happy with the fights and everything. Even if I couldn’t finish in the position that I would like, fighting for victory, I think it really was an interesting race. It’s true that race after race, all teams are going in the right direction in terms of everything around the weekend. But anyway, I think it’s much better than in the past, how the fights are, how is the overtaking, even the wing is doing a good job. I think it’s interesting for overtaking. The tyres are helping a lot as well, so is the KERS. It’s important that we have fun on the track but it’s also important that everyone who watches Formula One - the fans - get really excited.
Question: When you go around the paddock, do you notice the absence of Robert Kubica and do you miss him as a friend and a personality in Formula One?
Felipe Massa: I’ve known him since he was racing Formula Renault. I moved from Renault to Formula 3000 and he was starting in Formula Renault so I’ve known him a long time already and he’s a great driver, a very friendly guy, a very nice guy and an incredible talent, for sure. We miss him, for sure, fighting with him on the track. He was always very strong, a very good driver. The way he drives and the way he works, the way he believes, so I really hope he’s back here to do what he likes to do which is racing and just to see him in the paddock to have fun together as well.
Question: Felipe, can you estimate the lap time and improvement in respect of the ‘old’ Ferrari that we saw in China, for example?
Felipe Massa: I think it’s always difficult to say, really, how big the step is going to be. Even if we always have an idea how new pieces are going to be, we don’t have an idea about the other teams, so we don’t have any idea about how everybody’s racing, so it’s always difficult, especially before you try all these new parts you have on the car. I hope we have a bigger step than the others, that’s always what everybody hopes in Formula One, so we will wait and see.
Question: Going back to what has been said about the excitement of the races – more overtaking, DRS, the KERS, the tyres - but Mark Webber, for example, in the last few days has said that overtaking has become too easy. He says that you probably had to take more risks in the past to overtake. Do you think this is the case or not?
Felipe Massa: For his car, for sure, it can be easier than… It depends on the situation. For sure, when you go out of the garage and you have new tyres and you find cars with old tyres in front of you, it’s definitely very easy but it’s because of the tyres, it’s because of the high degradation. I think when you are in a similar situation it’s not so easy, but the wing helps, you know? I don’t think it’s just the wing which makes overtaking possible, easier or not easier, it’s everything, together with the tyre degradation and everything: how the cars use the tyres; how the strategy works as well. I think it’s better for you guys. How many years have I heard people saying ‘the good thing was the past, when Senna, Piquet, Mansell… it was really fun to see all these drivers race. They knew how to do it: Villeneuve, Arnoux.’ It’s true. It was also different cars as well and I even heard some things like after China: ‘ah, now Formula One is back to how it was before’. It’s important to see you guys happy as well, and I think for the fans it’s what we care about. If they are happy and the drivers are happy as well, we will carry on like that.
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