Felipe Massa pleased with Ferrari progress during Barcelona F1 test

Massa was having his first run at Barcelona this week after Fernando Alonso drove on the opening two days. Although continuing the detailed evaluation work that has been a part of Ferrari's pre-season programme, he can now see light at the end of the tunnel.

"The car is definitely better compared to Jerez and we are beginning to define how we must move forward to continue to improve," said Massa, who ended the day seventh on the timesheets.

"I ran all the time on the hardest tyres and I am reasonably pleased with the work we did. Tomorrow I will try the other compounds and we will work on fine-tuning the car. It will be important to do a lot of kilometres over these final five days to be as well-prepared as possible for the first race of the season."

Ferrari has revised its plans for next week's Barcelona test. It has chosen to join Red Bull in running from Friday to Monday, while the rest of the teams will be on-track from Thursday to Sunday. Its drivers will alternate their running too, with Massa driving on Friday and Sunday, and Alonso testing on Saturday and Monday.