"It’s nice to be in China and I am particularly happy to see the enthusiasm the fans here seem to show for me. Compared to last year, we are much more competitive and we hope to be able to pay back the fans with a better result than back then. The fight with our closest rivals seems to be very tight, even if we have not yet had time to take a close look at all the data. It is difficult to make predictions on tyre performance given today’s weather. I like driving at this track: it is very tough with a big variety of corner types."

Felipe Massa
FP 1: No Time
FP 2: 4th + 0'01.060

Massa had this to say after his first day at Shanghai:

"There is little to say as this was not a good day for me. I did not go out on track this morning and then in my second run this afternoon, I had a problem with the engine and had to come back to the pits, where our engineers realised the unit would have to be changed. It’s a shame, as the car seemed to be well balanced right from the start and I had been able to do some good times. Of course, dropping ten places on the grid will make my race much tougher but I believe I can still put on a good performance."

Ross Brawn
Technical Director

Ferrari Technical Director Ross Brawn, was obviously not pleased with Massa's engine failure, but is confident for a stronger qualifying and race performance. This is what Ross had to say:

"The day was spoilt by the problem with Felipe’s engine, which will see him lose ten places on the grid. Now we have to look at the data and the engine itself to understand what happened. It is a real pity given our performance level is pretty good. The cars seemed to be well balanced and our overall situation seems quite positive. As every Friday, we worked on a comparison of the two types of Bridgestone tyre available to us. It is still too early to understand how the track will evolve for the race, especially given the track conditions we had today."

September 29, 2006