Massa: BMW ahead of Ferrari and McLaren
By Michele Lostia and Pablo Elizalde
http://www.autosport.com/Friday, February 9th 2007, 10:22 GMT
The BMW Sauber team are looking like the team to beat, judging by pre-season testing form ahead of the 2007 season.
That is the view of Ferrari driver Felipe Massa, who has been impressed with the German squad's performances with their new F1.07 car.
"The McLaren surely looks fast, but in my opinion the BMW Sauber is the best of all at the moment," Massa told Gazzetta dello Sport.
"I'm saying this by not just looking at the fastest time of this last day, but by seeing their consistency over their long run simulations.
"For me, the BMW Sauber at Valencia was impressive, and at Jerez they've done some very interesting tests too," added the Ferrari driver, who reckons BMW are ahead of Ferrari and McLaren so far.
"The McLaren is the fastest over a single lap, but as far as consistency is concerned the BMW is impressive even though they perhaps haven't the best reliability yet. For now I put them ahead of Ferrari and McLaren."
Despite his rivals' impressive form, Massa claims there is nothing to worry about, and he believes Ferrari are right where they expected to be at this point.
"We are in the situation we had expected," he added. "The car is demonstrating to be certainly quick and reliable too, even though we had some problems. However, we know how to solve them.
"We leave Jerez with some good things and some others not as good. The car is quick and there's nothing to worry about. We manage to easily do quick times and we are close to the guys who go faster at the moment."
The Brazilian admitted the rain that has hit this week's test at Jerez has hindered their preparations with the F2007 car, making next week's test at Barcelona crucial to get things right for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
"Saying it's a pain is an understatement," Massa said. "We came here to put miles in the car and to get to know it, but with the rain we aren't able to always complete the program: you can't push like in the dry, and you can't always understand whether the new things you are testing are working or not.
"Next week's test will be important for everyone. The car we are using now is very different to the one we'll use in Australia, at least aerodynamically. At Montmelo we'll begin to see some changes."
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