Will Felipe Massa be able to shrug off his nerves to perform better in Shanghai?
Felipe Massa is under tremendous pressure going into the third race of the season at Shanghai International Circuit.
Massa has had a horrid time behind the wheel in the last couple of seasons and the start to the 2012 season is proving to be one of the lowest points of his career since his almost career ending accident in 2009.
Massa did have a good start to the race and found it hard to gain pace. He also conceded that he realises that the race weekend has not been a good one for him. He chose to blame the car for his poor showing and said that the balance was not there in the
car. He added that he struggled a lot with the tyres.
He said that the car was skidding and the rubber compounds were degrading quicker than other cars on the grid. Massa added that going into the Chinese Grand Prix the team will need to work closely to understand where the car lacks and what the reasons behind
its poor performances are.
It will be important for Massa to improve his performances as soon as possible as his race seat with Ferrari is in serious jeopardy. Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has already given Massa a warning and wants him to come up with better performances
in the season or face the consequence of losing his place at Ferrari.
Massa has not looked the same driver since his return from his injury and that may be another reason to his downfall, but the growing talks of his removal and the added pressure to perform may place a heavy toll on the Brazilian and could possibly result
in another failure in China.
“I really hope I can have a normal Grand Prix without problems, right from Friday: that is fundamental to being able to finally get a good result,” Massa wrote on the Ferrari website. “I know it won't be easy, also because I don't think we can expect any
major new elements, at least in the short term. We will have to try and squeeze every last drop out of what we have, as Fernando has managed to do in both Australia and Malaysia.”
The Chinese Grand Prix is scheduled for April 15th 2012. Two weeks after the Malaysian Grand Prix which means teams may have had some time to recuperate from their last race and look to improve in China.
Tags: