Distressed Felipe Massa vows to help his team
The Ferrari driver Felipe Massa is ready to start anew with his team believing that everybody in the squad has always supported him in the past and would continue doing so in the future as well.
The recent words of his team president, Luca di Montezemolo has soothed the driver who has had a real tough time since the mid-season race in Germany, where the team got accused of team ordering.
As the Formula One caravan returned from the sixteenth race of the season, the Japanese Grand Prix, the heat amidst the driver and his team flamed once again. The poor performance of the racer at the Japanese Grand Prix was suggested as an intentional act
to keep the team from scoring well. However, Ferrari dismissed all such speculations voicing their belief that the better side of the driver would be seen shortly. Also, his teammate, Fernando Alonso while talking to the press a couple of days back proclaimed
that he is looking forward for a very supportive role of Massa in the remaining three races in Korea, Brazil and Abu Dhabi.
Moreover, Montezemolo commented, "I have waited for Felipe with great perseverance in the last four races. I want a strong Massa who will shave points off the rivals."
The team saw a very disappointing driving from Massa last Sunday at the Suzuka track. The Brazilian had a poor qualifying, blaming traffic and later at the final race he retired right at the first lap after indulging in a silly crash. Both these incidents
gave wind to his soaring relationship of the driver with his team.
Still, the team and the driver both rejected these speculations, as Montezemolo said, "I'm sure that he will be the surprise of the last three races of the season. After this bad day he will be desperately keen to react and we will do everything to give
him the possibility to win."
Although the statement has been interpreted as a ‘final ultimatum’ to the driver from the team after a series of flaming words from both sides in the past few weeks, yet Massa takes it as a token of support from the team president and fully welcomes it.
When asked about this recent statement, Massa told that he is happy with the way the team has stood by him especially during the tough times, and now as he is struck by ill-fate for the past few races he once again trusts his team.
Massa wrote on the official website of Ferrari that reading Montezemolo’s statement right after the Japanese Grand Prix has further assured him of the team’s backup at this bad time.
He added that the past few proclamations of the team as well as his teammate portray their firm faith upon him, providing him with the impetus for the final three races of 2010 season.
After facing a long purple patch, since he handed his victory to Alonso at the German Grand Prix, this is the first time that he sounded so committed to his team. Only a day before the last race in Japan, he firmly announced that he would rather quit racing
than spoiling his career and reputation by being a number two driver for the team.
However, now as he talked to the media he proudly said that the most important thing is to keep a positive approach, especially at this part of the season when the team is striving so hard to materialise their hopes of the 2010 World Championship.
He concluded saying, “Everyone must put in 110% effort in order to succeed and that is definitely what I'll be doing for the remaining weeks of the season."
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