Felipe Massa says a simple lack of grip was the cause of his struggles in qualifying in Australia, something that came as a surprise after testing suggested that the car was at least potentially good over one lap.
The Brazilian only made it out of Q1 in 17th because Kimi Raikkonen didn’t get his final lap in, and would have been 17th and last in Q2 had Sergio Perez not had a gearbox failure, which gifted him one place.
“The weekend is a little bit more difficult that what we expected,” said Massa. “We expected to be a little bit more competitive than what we are. So I’m sure the track doesn’t help 100% our car, but anyway I expected to be better than what we are. I was fighting all the time with the balance, to have the balance, to have the grip. I was struggling massively without the grip in the car. That was really the main issue I had today.
“So for sure whenever I improve the balance I find a lot of time, because fighting every corner, easy to pass a little bit the limit, because you lose the rear, the traction is difficult. For sure the track is not helping that.
“Now we need to concentrate for tomorrow, to make a better job in the race than in the qualifying, and then concentrate as well to improve the car in the quickest way we can.”
Asked by this writer if he was disappointed to have such a bad opening to the season when he needed a flying start, he said: “I’m not disappointed, just because I was fighting to find the balance of the car all the time, it was very difficult, I’m disappointed because of that. I’m sure if I had a normal car with the grip there it would have been no problem.”
Adam Cooper F1 