Barrichello plays down Massa comments

Massa caused a media storm yesterday when he was quoted in the Brazilian media as saying Alonso must have known about the plot for Nelson Piquet to deliberately crash and cause a safety car that would be key to the Spaniard's strategy. He later played down his comments in a statement issued by Ferrari.

In recent weeks Massa has been highly critical of the decision to let the result of the Singapore race stand, as he had been leading prior to the safety car but failed to score after a disastrous pitstop under the Piquet-instigated yellow.

Barrichello felt the remarks were a case of his compatriot being out of touch with events while on the sidelines - and that the press had paid more attention to Massa's thoughts because he had not been present to comment as the scandal unfolded but was now the only driver voicing an opinion on the matter.

"In Formula 1 if you're not travelling with everyone all the time and not hearing what the same people are talking about, you just get different ideas and maybe you're flying on your own ideas," said Barrichello.

"He's been out for a month and then he comes back in and talks about something and it becomes a lot more important, so it's not like what we hear every fifteen days or sometimes every week - we talk about the same things and we're prepared to talk about the same things that you guys are talking about for the whole week.

"So maybe that's what causes us to give so much more importance to what he says, but for me it's just the fact that he's been out and not living the world that we're living in."

The Brawn driver also expressed his delight at how Massa's recovery was progressing, following his comeback test earlier this week.

"All my wishes, when I was at the hospital, were that he was the same guy," said Barrichello. "And after I saw him with my own eyes and I saw that he was the same, I wished that he could drive the same way, and he went to Fiorano and did that.

"From all the people that I've spoken to and to himself, it looked like he got into the car and on the third lap he was on the pace."