Massa says Vettel can only lose title by doing a 'crazy job'

The world champion has won six of the first eight races of the year and leads in the standings by 77 points from team-mate Mark Webber.

Although Massa is adamant that Ferrari cannot give up this season, the Brazilian concedes the title is Vettel's to lose.

"There has been a lot of discussion about whether Ferrari's championship chances are already over this early in the season," Massa wrote on Ferrari's website.

"I don't know the answer to that, but will still tackle every race in the same way, trying to win it. Getting the first win of the season is our immediate task and then trying to win more.

"Only at the end of the year, should we look at the championship situation. Realistically, Sebastian Vettel would need to do a really crazy job to lose the title.

"But we cannot give up and this situation changes nothing in our approach, because a victory is already a very nice thing to have and some wins this year would show we have done a good job.

"We must not forget that improving the car and its performance can also be important for 2012, because there are not so many rule changes coming which means that the car will not change completely compared to this year. A good car now and at the final race of 2011 is already a good step forward for 2012."

Massa said he is expecting Ferrari to be strong in this weekend's British Grand Prix, despite the nature of the circuit not favouring his car's strongest points.

"It is true, as many people have said, that the last three circuits suited our car well, but I expect it to also perform well at Silverstone thanks to developments we have introduced, although of course the other teams will probably have done the same," he said.

"I expect we will be competitive, but we must wait and see how the car works at a type of track where, earlier in the year, we were not so competitive.

"The reason this is important is that, if we are competitive in England, then it confirms we have improved a lot and have reduced the gap to the other teams. We will also see how much we have improved our performance with the Hard Pirelli tyres, which we have not used them since Barcelona.

"We will also have the Soft tyre in Silverstone as the Option and that is a good thing, because it means we have a tyre that suits us well for qualifying and maybe for a major part of the race as well."