Massa, in the final year of his contract with Ferrari, said that speculation
linking other drivers to his race seat was nothing new, even joking at one
point that no one had yet put forward MotoGP superstar Valentino Rossi who
was linked with a move to Ferrari a few years ago.
“Things change very quickly,” Massa said. “In 2008 I didn’t finish Australia
or this race and then I had my best season.
“I really don’t care [about criticism in the media]. I have a job. The only
thing I am working for is to drive the car and get out of the car 100 per
cent convinced that I did the best.”
Massa found support from various of his colleagues, including former team-mate Michael
Schumacher and McLaren’s Lewis
Hamilton, while Ferrari’s official Twitter account laughed off all
the speculation.
“This year we can beat a world record: how many names of
drivers/engineers/managers will be associated to Ferrari,” Ferrari said.
“At the moment we have: Sergio Perez, Jarno Trulli, Adrian Sutil, Nico
Hulkenberg, Christian Horner … and we’re just at the beginning of the
second round of the championship.”
However, Massa’s team-mate, Fernando Alonso, who did brilliantly to finish
fifth last Sunday after qualifying down in 12th, warned Ferrari fans “not to
expect any big miracles” this weekend given there have been no updates to
the F2012.
Team principal Stefano Domenicali and technical director Pat Fry will arrive
in Malaysia in time for practice this morning having flown back to Maranello
to crack the whip following last weekend’s Australian Grand Prix.
Meanwhile, Schumacher said he was “relaxed” about heading to Bahrain for next
month’s controversial grand prix.
”I’ve a few good friends over there, and I’m pretty sure for them it’s a very
important event, and they just want to make everybody happy,” the Mercedes
driver said.