Massa 'motivated' to start testing F2007

"I've seen the car, the sensations are good," Massa said. "We need to start running it to get on with the programme, but the sensations are good. The car is very beautiful, it has a lot of details, more than the 2006's car: the front suspension is quite different.

"There are many positive things and I feel very motivated to start running in it."

Brazilian Massa, who will start the season as one of the favourites to fight for victory thanks to Ferrari's strong end to the 2006 season, will start working with the F2007 tomorrow, when he will shake the car down before the real work begins.

"I've run plenty in our car in 2006," Massa added. "It's important for the team to have precise information from the start.

"Continuity is very important. In this first week of testing we'll have the new and the old car with can be run at the same time and do as many kilometres as possible."

Massa will be partnered by Kimi Raikkonen this season, the Finn replacing retired seven times champion Michael Schumacher at the Italian squad.

The Brazilian is welcoming the challenge of racing alongside Raikkonen, rated as one of Formula One's fastest drivers.

"I've always had good teammates and the best thing for me is to have a quick teammate who is highly rated by everyone," Massa said of Raikkonen. "I'm ready to work with him. It's important for us to work well with the team to have a competitive and winning car, and it's up to us to do the job on the track.

"I don't know Kimi well because we've just started working together. At Madonna di Campiglio I had a chance to get to know him better and I'd say we got on well together.

"With Michael I had a very close relationship and I haven't yet had the same experience with Kimi to say, but he seems a nice and easy enough person to work with us and the team."

Massa claims both him and Raikkonen will be getting the same treatment from Ferrari, despite the team being known to throw their support behind Schumacher in the past years.

"I see no differences to 2006," he added. "Everything has always been very clear in this team, and I've always had all the telemetry data I wanted from Michael so it will be the same with Kimi, I don't see a reason to change that and it won't."

The Brazilian driver, who scored his first two wins last year, believes Schumacher's help will still be important, despite the German not doing the driving.

"Schumacher can be useful for both of us drivers. He's very happy and motivated to help out the team.

"It's very useful for me to have him working for the team because he can give lots of useful indications, but I think he can be useful for Kimi too because he can ask him many things since he hasn't worked in the team before.

"His experience and intelligence will be useful for both myself, Kimi and the team."