Q: Felipe, what happened last weekend? Have they worked out what it was?
Felipe MASSA: Well, I had a problem with the rear damper. The damper just locked, so the car was bottoming quite heavily. First of all I thought it was a puncture and then I called the team straight away saying that I had a big problem with the rear of the car and it was not possible to even do one corner, because when I went into a corner, the car was jumping on the ground and you couldn’t drive, so I asked straight away if I could pit and they changed the tyres but the problem was not with the tyres. It was a big shame. Q: Do you feel the championship is no longer attainable now?
FM: Well, I’m still fighting, I’m still keeping my head up and trying to win as many races as possible, trying to fight every weekend, very very important weekends, and what’s going to happen in the end? I don’t know. For sure I will not give up, so every race will be very important for me and I hope I can fight for a victory at every race so I will just give up when I see that it is not really possible any more. At the moment it’s still possible, very difficult, but we will keep fighting.
Q: We keep asking if Ferrari is suited to certain circuits and it is to some of them and not to others. Which is this one?
FM: Well, you keep saying that, not me. We try to fight on every circuit, so it depends whatever layout we have. For sure, on some kind of layouts this year our car was less competitive than on other tracks, so hopefully we can be very competitive on this track.
Q: How did you feel about the test then?
FM: It was very good. The car was pretty quick, pretty consistent so hopefully we can be very quick here.
QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Mike Doodson – Auto Action) For Felipe, about the problems you had in Monza. You told us some interesting details but was there anything new on the car in Monza? Or do you think that the damage may have been caused because you were trying to match the McLarens over the kerbs?
FM: No, no, it had nothing to do with the kerbs. It was something... we had a big problem on the damper. I don’t really need to say what caused the problem but it is a problem with the damper, nothing to do with the kerbs. Just something happened, but it is nothing to do with the kerbs, nothing to do with the start, nothing to do with the way we were driving, it is something that happens.
Q: Is it a new part?
FM: No, we used already this damper before.
Q: (Nikki Takeda – Formula PA) Last time we were here for the test and lots of drivers were not so happy about the pit entrance. Has any work been done to that and has anyone been to see it?
FM: I was one of them who was not happy with the pit entrance. It is very narrow, we have a lot of space there to do a nice job and for me the job was not very well done. I didn’t check if they changed the pit lane entrance but I think it was mentioned in the briefing with Charlie (Whiting) and he is going to work on that but I don’t know…
Q: Is there anything that can be done now? Will you ask for something to be done?
FM: Well it depends, I think if you call all the people in Belgium to do the job, maybe they can do it in one day but I don’t think it will be possible.
Q: (James Allen – ITV) Felipe, in the first lap at Monza obviously Lewis lost some momentum, you were trying to get past him through the Lesmos. Were you happy with where he put his car through that phase? Did you have a conversation with him after?
FM: No, I didn’t have a conversation. He tried and we touched…
Q: No, in the Lesmos, later in the lap.
FM: The Lesmos? No, normal.
Q: (Peter Windsor - F1 Racing) Felipe, who makes the dampers for Ferrari?
(Laughter)
Q: Sorry, I should know this.
FM: It is not up to you, it is up to us to know that. I will not comment exactly what caused the problem, I said that.
Q: I was just asking who makes the dampers? What manufacturer?
FM: No, I will not mention that.
Q: And the second part of my question. Is there any chance that a similar problem could have happened to Kimi’s car on Saturday and caused that accident?
FM: I think so. Maybe, yeah.
Q: Why then at the time were Ferrari so convinced that it was a driver error and he just hit a bump? How did they know that? How did Kimi know that at 300kph within seconds of the accident?
FM: Because when he had an accident he didn’t have any problem with the damper like I had, so we didn’t find any problem in the car, the engineer explained. It was a different problem, so it was not related to the car.
Q: But it could have been the damper that caused it?
FM: I don’t think so. Because the damper, when we had the problem, was completely blocked. So it was broken. But it was nothing that it caused, just a feeling, so it was a different problem. |
