Felipe Massa completed his second day of testing in Barcelona for Ferrari today, and later had many positive things to say about the Scuderia’s month of testing. “We did what we had planned to do at the beginning of this month of testing: we're very happy with the work done,” Felipe said. “We wanted a competitive car and I think we've achieved our goal. We've reached a good level of reliability, which is very important.”
When drawn on his competitors, and the relative performance of his Ferrari, Massa said that the teams will be close in Bahrain, but that he was in with a chance of victory. “It's difficult to say who worked best. Today the time sheet says Hamilton, but we're all very close together, it's just tenths of a second. I am very satisfied with the car, when we simulated the qualifying and when we drove with lots of fuel on board.
“I think that we're part of the group, who did well in these tests, something you could see on this last day of testing, when many simulated the qualifying. I don't agree at all with those who say we're the strongest: I think we're there, together with some other teams. I can't say that we're going to Bahrain to win, but I know that we'll fight for it. We had several aerodynamic updates here, which improved the car's performance. We now have to continue working in this direction. It's important to be ahead at the end of the year, not now. The same thing is true regarding the car: I was lucky to be able to drive several very strong Ferrari single-seaters and if the F10 is the best I've ever driven I'll only know after the race in Abu Dhabi!”
After all of the testing Ferrari have done in Spain, there are still question marks over the performance of the Bridgestone tyres, especially under the higher temperatures that will be seen in Bahrain and Malaysia. An understanding of tyre behaviour is important, as timing of pit stop strategies will depend purely on tyre wear in the coming season.
Felipe worked on the performance and best set-up of the F10, as well as concentrating on the Bridgestone tyre wear over longer runs. He drove a total of 114 laps.
