Luca di Montezemolo says Felipe Massa was their best option – Formula 1 news
Ferrari Boss, Luca di Montezemolo, has stated that they reassigned Felipe Massa for 2013 as he was the best option available since they could not find any other driver quicker than him.
“The Brazilian improved a great deal in the second half: in fact in the first part, it seemed he'd gone on a round the world holiday,” Montezemolo said. “Joking apart, I think the decision to reconfirm his position was the right one: if we had changed, then
one would need to take on someone who would make a difference and I can't say I noticed many drivers around who would be quicker than Felipe. Also, we did not want to change the balance and the good atmosphere within the team.”
He said that team principal, Stefano Domenicali, and he mutually decided to wait and in the end their decision turned out to be right as Massa started to improve. He told that by the end of the season, the Brazilian driver was even quicker than his championship
running teammate, Fernando Alonso, which helped them maintain their second place in the constructors’ championship.
About Alonso, who ultimately lost the title to Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel, Montezemolo added that this was his best performance so far in F1 and he is the combination of their former drivers, Niki Lauda and Michael Schumacher. He said that like Lauda,
he drives through each race lap as if it is qualifying and like Schumacher, he is intelligent enough to know when to push and when to maintain the car.
Massa began the 2012 F1 season with poor performance which led to the speculation that Ferrari might drop him for the next season. However, by the mid of the season, he had improved considerably and had a better qualifying pace than Alonso towards the end.
Massa later admitted that the fear of losing his racing team had him under a lot of pressure.
At the season ending Brazilian Grand Prix, both Alonso and Massa were on the podium with second and third standings respectively. Massa was quite emotional after securing the podium in his hometown after a stressful season.
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