Felipe Massa has his tail up today, Ferrari are back in business and he knows that he has an important role in the outcome of the race, particularly at the start, where he lines up fourth on the grid.
Using the KERS system, which will give him an 80 horsepower boost on the run down to turn one, projections show that he should be second by the first corner, but if Button makes a poor start as he did in Bahrain and Kuala Lumpur, Massa will have him.
“It will be hard to pass in one go all three cars,” he says. “However the KERS has shown itself to be very efficient on other races. Let’s hope we get a good start and take advantage of it.”
He is clearly in the fight for a podium, which would be Ferrari’s first of the season.
“That’s the objective,” he says. “It would be a great result, if we think where we were in the first four races.
” Judging from Q2, on low fuel, I’d say that we are still a couple of tenths off (the Brawn and Red Bull cars). It doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you add it up over a race it’s quite a distance. I hope that the next evolutions which hopefully we’ll have in Turkey, will close the rest of the gap, even if it might be a little bit late in the championship.”
The new car, he says, is a marked improvement in a few key areas. The main thing is that it has more downforce, but it’s also more driveable,
“It’s more stable under braking and in the fast corners you can be more aggressive with it, ” says Massa.
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Go Felipe! Go get them Tiger… and er, don’t go and poke your nose where it does not belong. # 2 by turn 1 and then about 4 laps of clear air should do the trick nicely
yet another race which we go into not knowing what could happen at all! ferrari have made a huge step forward, it is indeed most impressive.
great blog, you really churn out insightful/behind-the-scenes posts quite rapidly and somewhat objectively. but please edit your photos a bit at least!! 😛 simple levels adjustments (and sometimes desaturation like here) would give a quality look, yet keep the nice snapshot look of being behind the scenes. its not that hard, hell, i’d even offer to do it for you @ my gmail LOL
Hope he tries his start from Hungary ’08
If Jenson, Seb, and Rubens are on the ball, then it doesn’t matter if Felipe has a rocket engine in his car, he will start fourth, and be fourth, at best, out of the first corner. This KERS thing only works if the other guy screws up or isn’t paying attention, which is one of many many arguments for getting rid of it.
Felipe confirmed today that he is about to become a dad in November. It’s a boy! Congrats to him and his wife!
I was born in November, it’s a great month for a birthday
Yup Ferrari have done it again…. wasted another race day due to incompetance…. now they can’t even put enough fuel into the car…. 😦
James,
Can you enlighten me on how the KERS stored electrical energy is converted into 80 bhp of extra power?
I assume KERS equipped cars don’t consume more fuel than their competitors as this would put them at a considerable disadvantage in carrying more fuel or stopping more frequently.
Graham