Felipe Massa says Ferrari is still in the world title hunt

Defending constructors' champion Red Bull has a 164-point advantage over Ferrari at the top of the standings while Sebastian Vettel is 92 ahead of Massa's team-mate Fernando Alonso in the race to win the drivers' title.

Despite this, Massa believes that the form shown by the Italian squad at last weekend's British Grand Prix - where Alonso won by demonstrating a clear race pace advantage over Red Bull drivers Vettel and Mark Webber - indicates that a fightback could be on the cards.

He has also been given confidence by Alonso's fightback of 12 months ago, when the Spaniard made up a 47-point deficit at this stage to lead the standings heading into the final race.

"For the championship, what can I say? As long there is a mathematical possibility there is always hope. I have said it so often, but it's still true, that at Ferrari we never give up and we keep on fighting," Massa wrote in his blog on the Ferrari website.

"The best strategy is simply to think about the season one race at a time, like we did at Silverstone."

Red Bull is expected to re-establish the big advantage it held before Silverstone at next weekend's German Grand Prix thanks to the relaxation of the rules governing the exhaust blowing of diffusers when off-throttle, but Massa thinks that his team's aerodynamic upgrades introduced in Britain will have a far greater bearing on results at the Nurburgring.

"Based on what we saw from our aero package in Silverstone, I have high hopes that we can continue in the right direction in Germany," he added.

"Now we need to keep the momentum this weekend and then immediately afterwards in Hungary, as that comes just one week later."

Massa, the World Championship runner-up in 2008, currently lies sixth in the standings, 152 points behind leader Vettel and 57 adrift of fifth placed Jenson Button.