Massa says drivers spurred on by verdict

The FIA acknowledged that McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan had been in possession of confidential Ferrari data, but decided not to penalise the team because there was no proof that McLaren had made use of the information.

The verdict drew a vitriolic response from Ferrari boss Jean Todt, but while Massa registered his disappointment with the outcome, he said he would leave it to the team hierarchy to pass comment.

"It's certainly not a nice moment for this sport," Massa told Gazzetta dello Sport.

"It's not up to us drivers to judge, but we can have our opinions. I think president Montezemolo and Jean Todt will be able to react.

"Us drivers will have to do it on the track, by working and driving at the best of our abilities. The gaps aren't too big and we are competitive: I would have won at the Nurburgring if it wasn't for the problem in the rain at the end with the tyres."

There had been additional friction between McLaren and Ferrari even before the WMSC hearing, with Massa and Fernando Alonso arguing in parc ferme after the world champion's late-race move on the Brazilian at the Nurburgring.

"Something happened that I wish it won't happen again," Massa said.

"But I don't regret what I did, as in the end I had a normal reaction. We are there fighting for positions, fighting for the championship, and sometimes you can't just control your nerves so easily."

Ferrari have admitted that resolving their reliability problems will be critical to the title fight, and Massa lost a lot of testing time after another failure at Mugello on Thursday.

He played down the problem, but conceded that there was work to do.

"It was different from Silverstone: it was something fairly normal, nothing to worry about," he said. "It's true, we've had several reliability problems this year, we've fixed many of them and we are sorting out others, including the ones we've had recently.

"We didn't expect Kimi's 'KO' at the Nurburgring and we must overcome that. These are things that can take away important points for the championship."

Despite predictions that McLaren will be stronger at the forthcoming Hungarian Grand Prix, Massa is confident Ferrari can fight for victory.

"We'll attack in Hungary already, where we'll be able to contradict (anyone) who believes it's not a track suited to Ferrari," he said.

"At Mugello, in the final hour and a half after the long break, the car went very well and we had time to verify some very interesting things."