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Felipe Massa says he also pushed for tyre compound change

Felipe Massa has revealed he pushed for changes to the hard compound tyre, as he backed the decision to tweak the rubber ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix

Although Red Bull has been vocal about how it feels this year's tyres are too soft, the Ferrari driver said he had also pushed for changes.

The new hard tyre is built to the same construction as the previous one, but with the 2012 compound.

Massa admitted he was unsure how the new tyre would affect the teams' performance.

"I don't know, it's difficult to say," he said when asked if the change to the hard tyre favours a team like Red Bull.

"To be honest, I also complained that what they [Pirelli] need to do is change the hard tyres.

"That is what they did and it was a good decision.

"Who will be better or worse is difficult to say; we need to wait and see tomorrow."

Massa believes that the change was necessary because the hard tyre was not behaving as expected.

He cited both pace and degradation characteristics as having been in need of change.

"The [previous] hard compound was not really like a hard compound.

"The gap was not like a hard compound and the degradation was maybe worse than a medium."

Like team-mate Fernando Alonso, Massa is upbeat about Ferrari's prospects heading into the Spanish GP weekend.

Ferrari will trial a number of car upgrades tomorrow which it is hoped will boost its qualifying pace in particular.

"I am confident, we need to be confident," said Massa when asked by AUTOSPORT about his expectations heading into the weekend.

"We need to try things on the track to understand exactly how it is and I'm looking forward to fighting for victories.

"We need to understand how the car is tomorrow and on Saturday, but we are confident that we can have a good weekend."

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