Massa not disappointed by Button’s “incredible time”

2013 F1 season

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Felipe Massa said he was not disheartened about ending the first test session of the year over a second and a half slower than the fastest car.

Massa’s best time was a 1’20.536. “For sure I’m not disappointed, definitely,” he told the media after the test.

“We didn’t drive a lot, we had a few issues in the car in terms of temperature inside, to open the car to understand I mean the car maybe at the beginning the car was a little bit hotter than I expected so it’s a new car so we need to understand the direction to fix that. I don’t think it’s a really difficult thing to fix.

“So we didn’t drive a lot but I’m not disappointed, definitely. The 18.8 [by Jenson Button] is an incredible time, definitely.

“But 19.7 [by Mark Webber and Romain Grosjean] I don’t think so, I mean looking at the first day, looking at how we run, how we drove, the direction we had for the first day, I’m not really disappointed.”

Massa said his first taste of the F138 is “a completely different planet” compared to the trouble the team had with the F2012 last year.

“I would say the difference compared to last year is huge but it is only a start,” he added.

“It is the beginning of another year, we know how important it is to understand the direction of the car from now to the first race. So it’s a lot to do even if the direction is different from last year there’s a lot to do in the tyres, a lot to do to understand the right direction to make the car ready for the first race.”

2013 F1 season


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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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35 comments on “Massa not disappointed by Button’s “incredible time””

  1. For sure

    1. Formula One interviews. For sure, you are doing it right ;)

      1. Definitely.

      2. Obviously, unless you’re obviously Sebastian Vettel…. obviously.

  2. I doubt Ferrari are going to be worried about the fact Felipe Massa is a fair bit off the pace…

    1. Nick Jarvis (@)
      5th February 2013, 18:46

      i’d say he was around the 3rd fastest driver in the last 3 races of last season, it seems he found how to use the car properly.. i even forgot about how bad he’d performed in the first half of the season.

      1. I think Felipe is that kind of driver who can demonstrate great pace at certain circuits like Interlagos, Istanbul or Sakhir.However,he is not able to deliver those impressive pace at every track as Fernando or Lewis.

        1. yeah only when the car was eithir off the pace in 2010 or 2011 and when it was difficult to drive in 2012. in 2008 when the car was good he performed every race. alonzo and ham get the most out of a bad car but when the car is good i reckon massa and alonzo will have very similar laptimes

        2. Agreed. Same trend each year lol. He’s good in the final races and normally in the first 2 of the season. Everyone then says how Massa is back and Alonso is “average”, but before long he is at tracks where he is completely useless.

        3. Just watched Canada 2007 Grand Prix – the Maclarens (Lewis on pole) of Lewis and ALonso started from the front of the grid. Hamilton drove a great rave to win, Alonso meanwhile had a nightmare – starting with the first corner – eventually he was passed by Sato in the final stages (could say cost him the WC) – a few races later at Silverstone it was Alonso that finished over half a minute ahead of Lewis – my point is both Lewis and Alonso also suffer from form peaks and dips – perhaps it was Alonso that went off the bubble last season due to the pressure rather than Massa finding form? The point is niether get the best out the car all the time…

          As a side not I think it would make a intresting comaprison sometime to compare Alonso’s attempt to win his third straight title with Vettels…. (alonso’s 2007 season v Vettels 2012 season)…

          1. andrew simmons
            6th February 2013, 11:58

            Yeah, but if you look, Alonso went off on his own accord and had some damage. Asif a Super Aguri could drive around a mclaren in a straight line XD

            Didnt cost him the championship though, it was how they all handled themself off the track.

  3. ugh….not looking good for the reds.

    1. Sviatoslav Andrushko (@)
      5th February 2013, 19:57

      For sure, these are only tests. Actual perfomance we will see only in Melbourne, for sure.

    2. Yeah, Marussia were looking way off the pace.

    3. For sure, no need to worry just yet. The season is so long and look at where they were this time last year. For sure, last year every presenter, pundit, etc was writing their season off, yet they only lost the championship by 3 points.

      A quick look at last year’s times shows Hamilton’s best lap in Jerez at 1m19.4 with Rosberg fastest on a 1m 17.6 .. Hamilton nearly two seconds slower and look how Australia turned out ! Hamilton on pole and some 0.7 faster than Rosberg. That’s a Hamilton gain of 2.5 seconds on Rosberg’s pre season testing time… I think that tells everyone everything they need to know about testing time sheets.

      1. That the Mclaren is going to be even faster than Rosberg this time around?!

      2. Except that Mercedes used a 2011 car, which was fully developed through a season by then + EBD, in Jerez and McLaren didn’t.
        Not saying test lap time means much.

    4. Yeah, I know, Liverpool have looked dodgy all seasons.

      oh… you meant… disregard.

  4. Sandbagging… for sure!

  5. Fo sho I don’t know why journalists are asking about the times. Unless a car is ridiculously fast or ridiculously slow on the first day, there’s not much point in discussing differences that are less then a few seconds.

    1. For sure I forgot to add, definitively!

  6. As expected, McLaren is the fastest car.

    1. The McLaren looks fast out the box but I’m guessing the 18.8 was a low fuel lap?
      Either way, there’s no point speculating. It should still be the usual suspects fighting it out for the win in Oz unless someone really screwed up in the design department.

    2. Doesn’t matter, fastest lap isn’t the goal. Understanding the car and getting everything working is.

  7. Absolutely no point in speculating if Ferrari have a good or bad car after only a few laps. Let’s see what the field looks like towards the end of the second test before trying to judge a cars’ pace.

    1. Let’s see what the field looks like towards the end of the second test Friday Practice in Melbourne before trying to judge a cars’ pace.

      Fixed.

      1. Yes, you’re entirely correct. Looks like even I’m getting ahead of myself! :)

      2. I would disagree. By the end of the final test.. the pecking order is pretty clear. Sure there are a couple of unexpected surprises, but you have a very good idea of pretty much where each team stands if you look into all the numbers of pre season testing in details

        Mclaren were the only surprise last year… and they were the surprise only because they had enough time to fix their car before the first race.

  8. That Ferrari looks real nice out on track. The new red really works.

  9. Here we go. The season’s first overblown headlines and pictures of Lewis Hamilton (who didn’t even drive today) in the British press…

    The Daily Telegraph: McLaren’s Jenson Button bounces back in F1 testing but worries for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes
    The Faily Fail: A Brit better: Jenson Button tops time-sheets after he and Lewis Hamilton suffer reliability problems at Jerez testing

    Sigh. Will Lewis get all the credit when Rosberg wins a race?

    1. Oops, second one should be the Mirror and it’s here if you really want to read it.

    2. Meh. Don’t give it the time of day, I say!

    3. British media hit new low in 2013

    4. Sports journalism…you are doing it wrong!

  10. Honestly i believe mclaren was a big loser in terms of track time yesterday.Only thing they could’ve done was a flying lap.Ferrari’s sleak sidepods seem to make cooling difficult on the inside.They can’t be slower than a Toro Rosso anyway.

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