Felipe Massa says Ferrari 150° Italia a different car than the one used in Australia – Formula 1
After finishing seventh in the Australian Grand Prix, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa seemed concerned about his car, the Ferrari 150° Italia. He said that in Malaysia the car will be completely different from the one used in Melbourne. Massa commented that Red Bull
is still the car to watch out for and McLaren got lucky and had a good day in Melbourne.
Massa qualified for the 2011 season’s first Grand prix in eighth place and finally brought home his car in seventh position behind McLaren’s Jenson Button. Massa was behind his team-mate, Fernando Alonso, by three positions as the Spaniard finished fourth.
He placed behind his fresh rival from Renault, Vitaly Petrov. Both Ferrari drivers did three pit-stops and used hard Pirelli tyres for the middle part of the race. The Ferraris were also slower than expected and the duo was not happy with the car’s performance.
Massa explained that after having a pretty good pre-season testing session, Ferrari was well off course in the Australian Grand Prix. Massa seemed disappointed about the points he and his team mate scored in the opening race and said, “If there is one lesson
we take away with us after the opening round is that we have a lot of work to do. We urgently need to find out exactly what happened in Australia.”
Massa added that McLaren and Renault on the podium for the first race is not a big concern. He said that the main issue in terms of pace is Red Bull. Massa added that Red Bull’s free practice session and qualifier speeds were unmatchable which will be the
big question for the Ferrari team.
“It's true that McLaren seemed to have made a step forward, but Red Bull was really far ahead of everyone else,” commented Massa. The Brazilian driver added that Ferrari will use their original car on which they have been practicing in the winter.
The season’s next race will start in less than a week and Ferrari’s duo will try to take the qualifier position just behind Red Bull so they can challenge them in the race.
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