12/01/2012
NEWS STORY
After two fairly unambiguous seasons, Felipe Massa knows that he has to prove himself in 2012, and that is exactly what he intends doing.
The driver who failed to score a single podium result in 2011 was but a shadow of the man who won the 2008 world championship title, albeit for just a few seconds.
Some argue that he has never been the same since the freak accident at the Hungaroring in 2009, while in the wake of a disappointing 2010 season Luca di Montezemolo admitted that there were times he thought Felipe's brother was driving the car.
With continued rumours that Ferrari is losing patience and that the Brazilian could find himself out of a job sooner than he imagines, the 30-year-old insists that he is still a winner.
"After the last Grand Prix of 2011 in Brazil, I told myself that we had to be more competitive at every level and that's exactly what we are doing," he told reporters at Madonna di Campiglio. "Something also needed to change on my side and now I feel mentally strong and extremely motivated.
"I am well aware that this is an important year for me," he continued, "but the same goes for the whole team: I ask only to not have those difficulties in the races which often cropped up last year, preventing me from getting the results I should have done."
Ahead of his tenth season in F1, he continued: "That's a lot of years and I can claim to be a veteran. That will come in very useful in 2012.
"Pressure from the media?" he smiled. "It's to be expected when the results aren't there, just as it weighs heavily that I have not won a race for a long time.
"With a well sorted car this will not happen. The design of the new car is very different to those of the past and also the fact that we should have softer compound tyres should work in favour of my driving style. All the same, we will need to have a car that works perfectly in all conditions and on all types of tyre: that's the target the engineers have worked on all these long months spent designing the car."