“Felipe is a real hand… and mature beyond his years”. CAR associate editor Sudhir Matai speaks to the Brazilian and experiences, first hand, a master at work behind the wheel.
Despite the best efforts of several bungling, stuttering PR teams, a select few (those that selected to attend) journalists managed to spend a few minutes chatting with the runner up in the 2008 Formula One World Championship, Felipe Massa, in Gauteng at the weekend.
When he was not being bored stiff by chemistry lessons conducted by the host company we managed to speak to the Ferrari pilot.
When question about the new regulations and its effect on the driving experience of the new car he was quite positive, “We have just conducted an eight day test programme at Bahrain and are very happy with the results. We are still understanding and applying the new regulations but after these test days we are very positive.”
On the intended affect of the rules on on-track racing, ie more overtaking opportunities and closer racing, he was quite cautious, “These rules are supposed to work in a certain way. But all the teams have been testing and doing their own programmes… we will only know when we (Ferrari) are racing with other cars. The KERS system should makes things very interesting.
“It is most difficult to adapt to the new aero changes, with less rear grip there is more sideways driving out of the corners. The front wing is very difficult to get used to. The slick tyres provide more grip so the F60 is more fun to drive,” he added.
Of course we simply had to ask about famous last lap at Brazil, which cost Massa the 2008 F1 driver’s title. In that regard the young charger demonstrates a sense of pragmatism and maturity that several international sporting figures could learn from.
“You know this was a very nice experience for my real life. Anyway the Championship is not decided in the last race, there are many races through the season. It makes me want to push harder for the title this year,” the Brazilian said.
And he promises us that he did not break any television sets after the race.
Someone had to ask what car Massa drives in his free time and naturally both his regular rides have a Prancing Horse on the nose, a F599 and a F430 Scuderia – good man .
After that very brief chat and intense discussions among, what seemed like, 17 different PROs representing the event, I managed to score some passenger seat time while Massa twirled the wheel.
I’ve written it before, and I do so again here, to watch a real hand at work is a real pleasure. Even though he was driving a right-hand drive car, around the tight confines of the Mickey-mouse handling track at Gerotek he was very impressive.
He immediately switched out all the electronics on the F430 manual that we were in, and blasted away in a flurry of wheelspin and whiff of an expensive Italian clutch. We entered the first real breaking point at about 190 km/h, a full 30 km/h that I had ever experience going in there.
He twirled the wheel with compass accuracy as he dialled out, what he described as, “too much understeer” with loads of throttle and opposite lock. All this on a track that has no, and I mean ZERO run-off areas. What really impressed, as with all real masters, was his economy of movement, not a superfluous degree of steering wheel rotation, or a hand out of place as he cranked a hot lap of a track that he had never seen.
He may have been bored out of his skull and ever-so-slightly annoyed to be dragged across Africa, and THEN into the middle of the bush, only to have to deal with bumbling inefficiency, but he had the good manners to pose for the pictures with us, and even thank me for joining him for the lap – and that makes him a good man in my book.