F1: Massa Pleased With Ferrari Progress

Formula 1

F1: Massa Pleased With Ferrari Progress

Felipe Massa wasn't overly excited about pacing Day Three in Jerez...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted February 07, 2013 Jerez (ESP)

Felipe Massa drives his Ferrari in Jerez. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Felipe Massa finished his three days of initial running with the Ferrari F138 in Jerez by topping the times after running on Pirelli’s soft tires.

Ferrari moved on from aero and exhaust work to focus on testing the 2013 spec rubber as the red car continued to run reliably. Pedro de la Rosa takes over for the Brazilian on Friday.

“These were three very important days,” said Massa. “They were especially useful in the sense of finding the right direction for the team to focus on when it comes to the development work between now and the opening round in Australia.

“We had a lot of items to test, and the car went well. It was not difficult to drive, and it seemed to me to be quite stable and balanced. Today, we fitted the soft compound tires for the first time, and I went faster than I had expected.”

Massa wasn’t too excited about being quickest so far this week: “It means nothing, and while I’m pleased to have done a good time, that was not the priority. We must still concentrate on the car setup, and we will definitely be doing this during the next test in Barcelona. Several teams have very quick and well-balanced cars, and so I am 100 percent keeping my feet on the ground.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 28th season as a racing journalist in 2012. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.