Felipe Massa has said that he believes the world title still to be within his reach despite Ferrari’s torrid start to the season.
The 2008 world championship runner up has scored no points so far this season, and while he acknowledged that the FIA decision on the legality of the top teams’ diffusers would make the task even more difficult, he appeared to retain confidence in himself and the team.
“For sure it won’t be easy,” said Massa in China. “We need to work very hard, we have some teams which have a different car. It won’t be so easy to catch them but I think it can be possible.
“I hope it won’t be so late. I hope it will be in good time to fight for the championship still or to win some races. But anyway we will not give up. We work very hard and I believe we can improve the car a lot.”
Massa added that the team had undergone internal restructuring because of the need to return to the top.
“Well now with the diffuser is another reason to push very hard at home, to try to anticipate our new parts, and to try to anticipate the diffuser which is a way to improve the car in a big way,” explained the Brazilian. “So that’s why we changed our organisation a little bit.
“We need more pushing at home, we need also a good organisation on the track, that was the decision.
“The reaction (to the diffuser ruling) is that we need to try to work very hard to anticipate our floor, to try to bring as quick as possible. It won’t be easy because it is hard work to do. But the reaction is that we need to work as quickly as possible to improve the car.”
Ferrari have traditionally gone well at Shanghai and will be looking to start their recovery this weekend in China. The F60 does not appear to be too far away from the top in terms of outright pace, but bad strategical decisions, errors and reliability issues have dominated their season so far. Despite their lawyer Nigel Tozzi’s impassioned prosecution, losing the FIA decision on the ”double-deck” diffusers will be a blow to Maranello. However, they are one of the teams best placed to react, given their huge resources and experience.
