F1: We’re Still Behind Massa, Says Domenicali

Formula 1

F1: We’re Still Behind Massa, Says Domenicali

Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali is sticking with struggling Felipe Massa – at least for now...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted March 26, 2012 Sepang (MAS)

Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali insists that the team is still fully behind Felipe Massa – despite another dire race for the Brazilian.

To make matters worse, the brilliant second place for Sergio Perez has highlighted the Sauber man’s potential as a future Ferrari driver.

Massa started 12th and finished 15th in Malaysia.

“Of course, for sure, we need to stay close to Felipe at this moment,” said Domenicali. “It’s a difficult moment, and we need to find a way for him to get confident with this car. We saw, for example, one step that was in the right direction in qualifying, because we saw that there was an improvement compared to the last weekend, and now we need to understand the reasons of what happened today, in terms of his race and the performance.

“The problem is that this car is quite difficult; it’s not easy. It can be very good but it can be very difficult to drive, and I think we showed the situation today. In certain conditions you can be really, really good, in other conditions you destroy the tires, and cannot be really good. In this moment the priority is that Felipe has around him the protection of the team, and try to work hard with him.”

He admitted it was important to rebuild Massa’s confidence: “For sure, the confidence is coming if you are able to perform at the maximum. On the other side, we need to make sure that he is confident to drive his car at the limit, without overdriving it, then the situation will get worse.

“So these are the things that we need to make sure are happening with him. What I’ve asked to his engineers is to make sure that we are working in this direction.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.