Massa says Ferrari must close gap soon

Ferrari has already set its sights on winning a race before the summer break to try and get some momentum into its season - and Massa concurs that a key phase in the campaign is now coming up.

"We can see we are a little bit behind Red Bull and McLaren," the Brazilian said at Silverstone. "In the last three or four races, we were not strong in every race - but we still have many races, and many things can change in the next three or four races.

"We need to keep concentrated that we can have a change. For sure in the next four or five races it will be key: if we see our competitors scoring more points than us it will be difficult, but if we score more points than the others it will be really possible to fight for the championship."

Massa also has high hopes that the exhaust-blown diffuser fitted to the F10 in Valencia will show much better at the high-speed Silverstone circuit.

"The direction of reliability was good and it worked well in the last race," he said. "It worked really well so it is something that should be okay in this kind of track."

And Massa has denied talk that his form this year is because he is not yet back to top form after his Hungarian Grand Prix crash last year.

"The championship is a little bit worse than I expected, but I know why," he said. "It is not because of my accident, it is because of the problems I am having with the tyres.

"They are different problems. I am exactly like before. I know if everything was going in the right direction to be competitive I would be fighting for the championship."