Felipe Massa has said he doesn’t think there will be any major changes in the peeking order this weekend in Spain.
The race at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya on Sunday marks the start of the European season, and traditionally, it sees the teams all bring quite major updates. This year is no exception, but Massa doesn’t think there will be any big surprises.
“I don’t think the situation will change so much from what we have seen so far, although it’s true that many teams will have a lot of updates and we will see improvements,” he told Ferrari’s official website ahead of round five in the 2013 F1 World Championship.
“Maybe the teams who were suffering the most will suffer a bit less. But some of the front-runners could also move forward, because at the end of a three week break it’s logical that a team might come up with an update package that’s an improvement, but I don’t think it will produce a major change.”
As for his own prospects – and that of Ferrari – the Brazilian is in a confident mood and after a difficult race in Bahrain, he will be eager to return to points scoring ways.
“This could be a good track for us and it’s one where we went well in the winter [during testing],” he continued. “It’s a track I like too and I also feel very positive about this race, thinking about our race pace, but I also hope we will be competitive in qualifying.”
“We have new parts, and of course we are always hoping for a car with more downforce, that degrades it’s tyres less, but gives more grip. Hopefully we will end up with a car that helps the tyres work better, not just in qualifying but also in the race,” he added.
Meanwhile, staying on the subject of tyres, Massa noted that he is pleased Pirelli has changed the hard tyre: “The new tyre is a positive change, because the difference between the hard and the medium was that the hard this year was always slower but also wore out more than the medium,” he explained. “Now I think the hard should be a little bit quicker than before with slightly better wear than the medium. But it’s hard to say until we’ve used it and also we need to see how the other teams get on with it.”