Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Massa feeling stronger than ever

Felipe Massa says he is feeling a lot stronger as a driver following his championship challenge in the 2008 season

The Brazilian lost the title by one point to McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, in a thrilling season finale in Brazil, where Massa was champion until the final corner of the final lap.

As Ferrari unveiled their 2009 challenger, Massa admitted the experience had made him stronger as he mounts his championship challenge again this year.

"Every year I feel stronger," Massa said. "I think after so much experience in these six years I feel stronger, I feel more experienced, especially after last year, with how difficult the championship was.

"That makes me ready and even more experienced for next season."

Massa also said it is difficult to judge who the most competitive teams will be following the radical rules changes to be introduced for the year.

But the Brazilian reckons McLaren will again be Ferrari's main rivals.

"It's difficult to say what the most difficult car to beat will be," the Brazilian added. "We expect McLaren to be very competitive, maybe BMW, who are working really hard and growing a lot year by year.

"Maybe Renault and maybe we can have some other team who can show great performance as well. So it's quite difficult to say but for sure we are working really hard and hopefully it will be us."

The Ferrari driver will be the man in charge of taking the new F60 to the track for the first time later today, and he admitted he was very proud.

"For sure when you drive for Ferrari and you bring the new car to the track for the first time is always quite important and emotional day for us," he said. "I'm very happy, proud because I think it's very important for a driver to take the car to the track for the first time."

He also confessed he was surprised by how small and compact the new car is.

"I'm quite surprised because I expected a big car like it was 10 years go. But the car is very, very small, very compact, the rear end especially. It looks pretty nice, it looks pretty good and hopefully it will be as quick as it looks."

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Ferrari first team to unveil 2009 car
Next article Ferrari still undecided on KERS debut

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe