Massa banking on home advantage

Eurosport - Sun, 19 Oct 14:28:00 2008

Felipe Massa hopes home advantage will help him in the final round of his Formula One title fight with Lewis Hamilton in Brazil next month.

2008 Japanese GP Ferrari Massa - 0

The Ferrari driver finished a distant second behind Hamilton's McLaren in the Chinese Grand Prix and now trails the championship leader by seven points with only 10 remaining to be won in the season finale.

The 27-year-old Sao Paulo driver, who is chasing his first world title, said he had been well beaten by Hamilton and called on his team to provide him with a more competitive car for Interlagos.

Even then, the title will be out of his hands with 23-year-old Hamilton needing only to finish fifth in Brazil to become the sport's youngest champion.

"For sure we are in a difficult position but we know many things can happen in one race," said Massa, whose team mate Kimi Raikkonen made up a seven point deficit in Brazil last year to beat Hamilton to the title.

"We just need to keep our head up. It is not finished yet. We've got to concentrate on our job and try to win the race and then what happens, happens.

"We're still fighting for the drivers' championship ... we're going to everything we can to achieve our target."

Massa has been on pole in Brazil for the past two seasons, winning in 2006 and finishing second last year after allowing Raikkonen to go past and win.

"Always when you play at home you play better," he said.

"I've had a very good experience in Brazil in the last two years so hopefully I can repeat and have a great experience again."

"I'm very optimistic, and we need to be, everybody in the team."

Ferrari had won three of the four previous races at the Shanghai circuit before this year and had been expected to be strong again this year.

Hamilton, however, was much quicker all weekend and Massa said it would need a great deal more than wishful thinking to beat him on November 2.

"Hoping is always important but then you need a good car and I think we can have a better car in Brazil than we had today," he said.

"Today it was very difficult to follow this guy and fight with him."

Reuters

Comment 8 - 27 of 47

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  1. raikonen takes out hamilton @ 1st corner. Kovalainen­ runs race of his life and takes out massa @ last­ corner. Hamilton wins.

    From bosun_dele, on Sun 19 Oct 10:37PM

  2. lolita: My apologies, I forgot that the Stewards and­ FIA are part of the team. Perhaps they'll allow him­ to run extra light especially for the occasion.

    From ginger_gitt, on Sun 19 Oct 9:38PM

  3. I think pond.simba needs to get out the pond more he­ has water in his eyes there was no team orders at­ Silverstone it all happened at the start, today you­ could see ferrari had team orders kimi slowed to allow­ Massa to catch up if he had of had trouble he would not­ have been so close to Massa at the finnish, even in the­ interveiw Kimi said you have to do what the team­ expects when asked about Massa passing him. To be Blunt­ it was a Race Fix by Ferrari and the FIA will be as­ blind as a bait as normal

    From Ian J, on Sun 19 Oct 8:41PM

  4. raikennen takes out hamilton, massa wins race, massa­ becomes champion.

    From obama 08, on Sun 19 Oct 8:40PM

  5. How did McLaren have team orders in Silverstone? Lewis­ absolutely demolished the competition in Silverstone.­ He made a great start and passed Heikki on lap one.­ Heikki finished 5th, one lap down. So where were the­ team orders?

    From erbearj24, on Sun 19 Oct 8:06PM

  6. TEAM ORDERS WHICH AFFECT A RESULT ARE ILLEGAL &­ THAT HAPPENED HERE

    CHEAT MASSA SHUD RETURN POINTS TO­ RAIKONNEN & TEAM RECEIVE A FINE

    From tttobyjug, on Sun 19 Oct 8:02PM

  7. team orders? shut up mclaren used team orders at­ silverstone!

    From pond.simba, on Sun 19 Oct 7:40PM

  8. Ginger_gift, you are absolutly right. The red car is­ said to be the best on the grid, yet Massa calls on the­ team to make it better. But you are not reading between­ the line here. The better machine he wants is the­ STEWARDS. He's surprise that no penalties have been­ handed this Sunday. Remember their bitter arguments­ with the governing body after Singapore? It resulted in­ penalties been handed unfairly to drivers in the next­ race, just to make Ferrari happy. So expect penalties,­ and plenty of them in Brazil.
    I would also like to­ comment on Tamseel A's post (#11). I do agree with­ most of your judgement, but I want to remind you that­ penalties are not announced in F1 on the spot­ (let's say like in football for example when the­ referee whistle after a split second). In F1, it's­ usually when they believe that they is ground for­ penalty that they even announce that an "incident­ involving cars (x and y) are under­ investigations". They then look into their rules­ book and hand the penalty. The problem here is the­ fairness and the consistancy (or rather the­ inconsistancy) of those rules. They use all sorts of­ tools at their disposal to help or penalize a driver,­ including the deployment of the safety car (sometimes­ when it's not necessary) and its duration on the­ track (sometimes longer than necessary).

    From lolita, on Sun 19 Oct 6:28PM

  9. liam s you're just @#$% bricks because massa­ ain't gonna win the title. What's the matter­ silver arrows got your tongue. Team in silver will run­ rings around the pasta fanatics. Bring it on biatches.

    From Leo G, on Sun 19 Oct 6:01PM

  10. ferrari are true legends and born champions, mclaren­ were always second fiddle and hamilton is just a lucky­ spoiled kid in a car that's too good for him­ anyway, massa will win the title in brazil no doubt

    From liam s, on Sun 19 Oct 5:40PM

  11. who offered a million euros to any driver who shunts­ hamilton OFF THE CIRCUIT in brazil

    From Lucie D, on Sun 19 Oct 5:22PM

  12. massas only hope is Obi Wan Kenobi

    From wayne.self, on Sun 19 Oct 4:58PM

  13. Massa will be unstoppable at the Interlagos. He was­ brilliant in 2006 and was brilliant last year as well­ but for some reason he didn't use his full­ potential. My prediction is Massa to take a grid to­ flag win with Kimi second, Hamilton winning the­ championship and Ferrari for the teams' title

    From arshad_iceman2, on Sun 19 Oct 4:46PM

  14. Bank on being the runner-up cheat!!

    From usalien1967, on Sun 19 Oct 4:29PM

  15. mait1_2004, LOL at you !

    Let's imagine Vettel had­ been on McLaren too, or if Hamilton won a race, no­ matter in what conditions, being in Torro Rosso ?!?

    I­ suppose every good driver would've been as­ successful as HAMilton.

    From Kaka', on Sun 19 Oct 4:18PM

  16. mait Kimi did win the title last year he was fighting­ back since France.

    From supernova891, on Sun 19 Oct 4:10PM

  17. We do love to hate successful people and for some­ reason we love losers.
    I wish Lewis good luck for the­ title; he surely has driven consistently.
    Regarding the­ hint of hatred & biases in the previous postings it­ just makes me smile. There was a discussion recently­ how decent-looking people all of sudden become violent,­ or at least verbally abusive, 'monsters' during­ occasions such as football matches. This reflects in­ some of these postings as well. It is strange how­ sports can change peoples' perceptions and­ behaviors.

    Coming back to the subject, absence of team­ orders, 'equal treatment' within teams are no­ more than statements for the media. It is no secret­ that right from the beginning of a season every team­ has a number 1 driver and a number 2 driver whether or­ not they publicly admit it. It's happened with­ Michael Schumacher & Eddie­ Irvine/Barrichello/Massa, Mika Hakkinen & David­ Coulthard, Fernando Alonso & Jarno Trulli and now­ Lewis Hamilton & Fernando Alonso/Heiki Kovaleinin­ (sorry for any spelling mistakes).

    Secondly we have­ moaned about stewards for making decisions after races­ ends. Well this is technology for you! Using action­ replays etc with modern technology in cricket and­ tennis, decisions are overturned. The same will catch­ up in football as well and technology is used for­ things like judging whether ball has crossed the line.­ So what's wrong with using it in F1 where­ everything happens so fast and over the whole circuit.­ Obviously going through evidence takes time and if a­ penalty is announced a few laps later or even after the­ race, then so be it.

    And finally Formula 1 is not only­ about the best driver, it is about the best complete­ package for the whole of the year. If we're looking­ for the best driver then there is no other way than to­ put all of them in identical cars with identical tyres,­ fuel loads etc. and then see who is the quickest.

    Good­ luck to whoever you support. Try to enjoy the races­ rather than let your blood boil!

    From Tamseel A, on Sun 19 Oct 3:41PM

  18. "For sure we are in a difficult position but we­ know many things can happen in one race," said­ Massa, whose team mate Kimi Raikkonen made up a seven­ point deficit in Brazil last year to beat Hamilton to­ the title."

    This just proves how amazing this­ kid is. Lewis took the title race down to the last race­ in only his first 2 seasons in Formula 1...Kimi­ didn't win the title, Lewis lost it and we all know­ that Lewis learns very quickly, he won't mess up­ this time!

    From Mayowa, on Sun 19 Oct 3:10PM

  19. I was checking the spelling for my previous post and i­ found these two little snippets. I've got to say­ they made me think about how you perceive­ people.

    "When track officials examined the­ wreckage of Senna's racing car, they found a furled­ Austrian flag. Senna had planned to raise it after­ winning the race, in honour of­ Ratzenberger."

    "FIA President Max Mosley­ attended the funeral of Ratzenberger, despite the­ overwhelming attention on Senna's funeral, both in­ the world of motorsport and worldwide. In a press­ conference ten years later Mosley said,­ "'Roland had been forgotten. So I went to his­ funeral because everyone went to Senna's. I thought­ it was important that somebody went to­ his."

    Maybe Max isn't all bad :-)

    From Mike, on Sun 19 Oct 2:56PM

  20. Yes I think the boot is on the other foot this year,­ normally Ferrari are stronger at the end of the season,­ this year it looks like Mclaren.

    From Mike, on Sun 19 Oct 2:44PM
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