14/06/2007
NEWS STORY
In boiling hot conditions Felipe Massa met the media at Indianapolis today, just five days after seeing them in Montreal, following his disqualification from the Canadian Grand Prix. "What happened five days ago?" he joked, when asked to recall his last race. "I don't remember or at least I don't want to remember so let's just look forward. It is very hot here in Indy, much hotter than at the last two races so I think we can expect a different result. I think our car will go much better here."
The rankings in the championship are always uppermost in the minds of the media, even though the series has not even reached its halfway point. "At the moment I am aware that the gap to the championship leader is quite big at 15 points and this is more concerning than the gap to the second placed man, as my target of course is to win," was the Brazilian's assessment of the situation. "Now we must try and reduce the gap and then move ahead. I don't know how easy that would be to do because I don't know what goes on in the Hamilton-Alonso camp, but I do know what goes on here at Ferrari and that is that we are working very hard and in harmony with the will to win," he added when questioned about alleged conflict in the rival team.
"Here at Ferrari, there is a collaboration between myself and Kimi to improve and it is a hundred percent commitment. I known Kimi better now than I did at the start of the year and although he does not talk a lot, I feel we have a good working relationship and are both doing a professional job of working with the team to improve the car. He is what I expected he would be."
Massa's optimism for this weekend is partly based on the nature of the American track. "As for the F2007, I feel that on tracks with very little grip, like Monaco and Canada, it is a bit harder to find the right balance and get some grip. So I am happy to have got these two races out of the way. Here we have always been competitive and the track surface has suited us in the past. It will be very interesting to see how this weekend turns out as it will also give us a much clearer picture of the true situation. Naturally the car is the same as in Montreal, but while the aerodynamics might be similar to Canada we will be running a different set-up and different tyres.
"I prefer to think that something happened in these last two races in terms of track surface and temperature and that what has passed is passed, so I'm just looking forward. It is too easy to say we were just unlucky, to easy to find an excuse. We just did not do a good enough job. So we are not giving up and will fight right to the end. Whatever happens, I am confident we have a great car. I expect a good weekend. Last year, we had a difficult time up until this race but from here onwards, where we scored a one-two, we were very strong. So I hope I can change the way the championship has been going recently."
Finally, asked if he would like to drive in the 24 Hours Race at Le Mans which is taking place in France this weekend, Massa said: "It seems interesting and I really appreciate it and like what it involves, but it is not the sort of event I would want to take part in, because I don't like the idea of having to drive for so long. I prefer sprint races where you can push on every lap, rather than the strategic side of an endurance race."