For Felipe Massa, 2015 so far is like a glass half-full.<\/p>\n
The empty half is that Williams – last year a main rival to title-winner Mercedes – has fallen behind the resurgent Ferrari.<\/p>\n
“Last year we managed to beat Ferrari with a smaller budget,” said Massa’s teammate Valtteri Bottas in China.\u00a0 “I see no reason why we can’t do it again.”<\/p>\n
Brazilian Massa, however, is not so sure.<\/p>\n
“If two teams are working in the right direction and one of them has half the budget, then eventually you will notice that,” he said.<\/p>\n
Massa thinks Ferrari, his old team, has discovered something very special about how to manage Pirelli’s tricky tyres.<\/p>\n
“In qualifying in China, they (Ferrari) were one second behind Mercedes,” he said.\u00a0 “In the race they were on par.<\/p>\n
“They are obviously doing something completely different to all the other teams with their tyres,” added Massa.<\/p>\n
The half glass full for Massa, however, is that he has arguably set the pace at Williams this year, despite the much-vaunted talents of his younger teammate Bottas.<\/p>\n
Rob Smedley, Williams’ chief engineer who also worked hand-in-hand with Massa at Ferrari, thinks the 33-year-old has finally rediscovered the kind of form that drove him to the title showdown against Lewis Hamilton in 2008.<\/p>\n
“For the comparison with Ferrari, I don’t want to talk in more detail,” said Massa, who has said previously he is now much happier than in his final years in red.<\/p>\n
“This is in the past now,” he added.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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