Felipe Massa: “I am outside where I have to be…”

Felipe Massa finished a frustrated sixth in the Spanish GP after struggling for grip for most of the weekend, and once again failing to match the pace of Fernando Alonso

The Brazilian also damaged his front wing during the race, much of which he spent following the Michael Schumacher/Jenson Button battle.

“The car was not easy to drive, it was difficult to drive,” said Massa. “Sliding around, very low grip, especially in the last sector when you need to go out of the last corner close to the car [in front], it was impossible because the car had no grip.”

Felipe said that he was struggling before he damaged his front wing in contact with Karun Chandhok: “Even before I had the problem. For sure it didn’t improve, it got even worse with the front wing.”

Massa has struggled for the past four races, all of which have seen Bridgestone bring its hardest compound.

“Definitely I’m not happy, because the whole winter in the tests I was 100% happy with the car, the way I drive. Starting in the first race I was 120% happy about the car, and we did a great job in the first race, did a great job in the qualifying, and even in the race with the problem I had the race pace was really great.

“Then after we changed to these tyres, when we did four races with the same tyres which were must harder than the tyres from Bahrain, I was struggling. I couldn’t use the car like I want, especially on the new tyres. So it’s something that I need to understand. It’s not that maybe you finish the lap and you do what you want and you’re a little bit slower. I am outside where I have to be, and we need to understand what’s the problem.”

Massa admitted that he was impressed by the pace of the Red Bulls in Spain: “For sure it was the first track where we saw a Red Bull one second ahead of everybody. We always see maybe two-tenths, three-tenths, one and a half – it depends on the track. And in the race a little bit worse than the qualifying, the Red Bull. But this race was impressive, because they really made a big, big step forward. I hope it’s just for this track.”