Massa reckons Brawn the team to beat

Felipe Massa believes Brawn GP possesses the fastest car heading in the season-opening Melbourne race this weekend – but nevertheless says he starts the season with “great confidence” in Ferrari’s prospects.

Last year’s championship runner-up picked out the revitalised Brawn team as the outfit most likely to be Ferrari’s biggest worry in the season-opener earlier this month after the squad demonstrated stunning speed at the final group test at Barcelona.

Now on the eve of the big Melbourne race, Massa says that while pre-season has showed several teams to be closely matched despite F1’s technical overhaul, Brawn definitely has an early edge.

“I'm going to Australia with great confidence and optimism, but also with some caution: the test results are not always repeated during the race weekends,” he told Ferrari’s website.

“We've seen during the tests that there are also some other very strong teams, especially in the last sessions the Brawns.

“It seems that they've got the fastest car at the moment and I think that their pace is real; maybe they found something that makes the difference.

“We'll see in Melbourne; but I think they've got a good car and they did their tests with the right weight.”

Massa himself begins the 2009 campaign looking to go one better in the title race than last year having lost out to McLaren rival Lewis Hamilton by a single point following the remarkable final lap to the season at Interlagos last November.

However, he has a wretched record at the season-opening venue – having not finished higher than sixth in six Albert Park starts – and last year endured a particularly nightmare race in which he spun at the first corner and later collided with Red Bull’s David Coulthard before eventually dropping out with an engine failure.

But the Brazilian says he is raring to go this weekend and is confident Ferrari has done everything it can over the winter to ensure the mistakes that cost him the drivers’ crown last year aren’t repeated.

“I'm 100% ready, perfectly in shape and I think that this also applies to the team,” he said.

“We made some mistakes last year and we've been working hard all winter long to improve where we weren't perfect.

“Everybody worked hard, analysing the mistakes, trying to find solutions. I think we're very well prepared and that we've done some great work.

“My goal is very simple: I want a season like in 2008 and to reach that goal I have to stay concentrated and work very hard.”

This weekend’s event marks the first race for the sport’s new technical era, with changes to front and rear wings, the reintroduction of slick tyres, cuts in downforce, adjustable front wings and energy-saving KERS all designed to help overtaking.

Massa is withholding judgement on whether the driver-adjustable front wings will help passing moves, but is sure that KERS – which will provide a power boost for just under seven seconds – will prove key.

“There are many new elements this year we've got to work with from a technical point of view,” he said.

“We've worked very hard during the winter tests and now we can say that their use is normal.

“For example the possibility to adjust the front wing's flap via a button and the manettino on the steering wheel: I don't know yet if it will help to facilitate overtaking due to the lower downforce on the front when driving in a slipstream; during the tests we couldn't really try that out.

“As far as the KERS is concerned I have to say that it's a very important device for us and it will be also very helpful.

“I'm enjoying working with all these new solutions: they make driving much more interesting.”

Source: itv-f1