Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel, who lead by 110 and 80 points in the Constructors and Drivers Championships respectively, are clearly the team and man to beat this season in Formula 1. And in the last race, in Silverstone, someone stepped up to the challenge and did just that: Ferrari and Fernando Alonso were at the top spot of the podium flanked by the two Red Bull drivers.
Now Felipe Massa, Ferrari’s other driver who in the British GP finished fifth behind Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren, claims that despite Red Bull’s huge points advantage and the fact that half the season is already behind us, the Scuderia can still beat their opponents for the World Championship:
“As long there is a mathematical possibility there is always hope. I have said it so often, but it’s still true, that at Ferrari we never give up and we keep on fighting. The best strategy is simply to think about the season one race at a time, like we did at Silverstone.”
How did Ferrari, which was struggling at the first races of the season, manage to improve so rapidly? Does this have to do anything with FIA changing rules over the off-the throttle engine operation that most think affected Ferrari’s rivals, Red Bull and McLaren?
Massa doesn’t thinks so: “Silverstone was the first time we were able to make the hard tires work very well. As an example, just look at the first part of qualifying at Silverstone where I was third quickest, just a tenth of a second behind the fastest man, using the hard tire. This means that our performance level was down to all the new components and updates we brought to Silverstone and was not connected to the rule change.”
Ferrari’s Brazilian driver is also very optimistic about the next race this coming weekend at Nurburgring: “It is an interesting circuit, with some unusual corners, uphill and downhill and slow turns in the modified first sector. So you need good downforce, but there are also some straights where straight line speed is important and based on what we saw from our aero package in Silverstone, I have high hopes that we can continue in the right direction in Germany.”
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