Formula 1 News

Massa: “I can win the Championship but only if McLaren makes mistakes” 

“More luck and some errors from the opponents” declared Ferrari’s driver in order to get back to win. In the meantime, Kimi Raikkonen speaks about this week’s tests in Silverstone: “We are close and all my problems have been solved”. Fernando Alonso joins the group chasing Hamilton.

This year’s Formula One Championship is more and more, cross-sectional. One one side there’s Lewis Hamilton, 22yrs old, temporary leader of the Championship who attracts on himself the curiosity of supporters, press, admirers, opponents. On the other side, Alonso, Massa and Raikkonen teamed in order to chase the new phenomenon of Formula 1.

Try to ask Hamilton what surprised him the most from the beginning of this Season and he’ll answer to you: “The unexpected notoriety”.”Months ago nobody knew me and now, everybody greets me. Surely, i’m nor Schumacher, nor Hakkinen nor Alonso! In the past, they must have had these feelings”. But if you ask him about the celebrations, Lewis becomes a cold fish: “After Montreal i had a barbecue with my friends, after Indianapolis a glass of champagne with my family. Nothing more”. In the meantime he collects the newspapers where he’s “pictured” happy and victorious.

Earlier today, Fernando Alonso stated: “My situation in McLaren is good even if, obviously, all of us would want to beat our teammate. Sure, i’m in second position in Driver’s Championship, but my team is first in Constructors Championship. I would have liked to be above all drivers, in first place, but in order to achieve that i would need more horsepower, speed than the one i had so far. Regarding Magny-Cours circuit, Fernando said: “I really like this circuit, now i’m racing for a different team and i hope that the weekend will be good for me”.

In Ferrari’s team, apparently, Felipe Massa seems to believe more in his potential than his teammate Kimi Raikkonen; but this could be a character issue. The Brazilian driver, however, has his ideas clear: “We can fight for the Championship. We must, also, have more luck and we have to take advantage of possible mistakes made by McLaren. Even though, if after half of the season McLaren’s advantage will continue to grow, it will be difficult to recover”. Later on, Massa defends from critics his teammate Raikkonen: “Many times I have heard about untrue things on me, that’s why i say to him to remain calm”. Indeed, the Finnish driver doesn’t get obsessed: “I did not expect to be in such position – Kimi admits – but if we improve more, we can start winning again”. Concerning the problems in race start, Kimi said: “I suffered lack of grip during race starts but now that we improved the clutch i hope it will be helpful”. We’ll see on Sunday’s Grand Prix…