Massa unconcerned by Todt departure

Felipe Massa is confident that the end of the Jean Todt era at Ferrari will not adversely affect the performance of the Italian team. Todt handed over day-to-day managerial duties to new team principal Stefano Domenicali in January and recently relinquished his title of CEO to Amedeo Felisa.

“To be honest, everything feels pretty much the same,” explained Massa. “Even if Jean`s areas of responsibility within our organisation have changed, the team itself is still the same with the same targets as we had in the past. The mentality is the same and it is doing a good job.

“When you replace some people in the team with others who work in the same way, then it changes little. We have seen in the past when Ross Brawn left, people said it was going to be different, but we still won and then again the same situation after Michael (Schumacher) left.”

Despite his optimistic comments, the Brazilian’s start to the 2008 season has been a testing time. After retiring from both the Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix, he is currently lying 20th in the championship table.

“It was not a the sort of start to the season that I wanted for myself, what with having a mechanical problem in Melbourne in the first race and then going off the track in Sepang and not finishing the second race,” he said. “It was very frustrating, but as the saying goes, that`s racing.

“We saw that everyone can have a good day or a bad day and I have started this season with things not going my way. But there are still 16 races and 160 points up for grabs. In the next few races I plan to get back all the possible points I have lost in the two opening rounds of this season.”

The 26 year-old is currently resting in his native Brazil ahead of the forthcoming Bahrain Grand Prix, which will take place from 4-6 April.

27.3.2008   ▪ Formula One    ▪ Massa, Todt    ▪ www.formula1.com