In an interview wit
h the media yesterday, Williams driver Felipe Massa believes his decision to adopt a cautious driving approach during the final stages of the Singapore GP paid off.
Williams used a two-stop strategy for the race around the streets of the Marina Bay while everyone else went with three stoppers, yet Massa somehow managed to do the job.
Massa managed to do 38 laps on the soft tyres and finished fifth, while his team-mate Valtteri Bottas slipped from sixth on the final lap to 11th. In his interview with the media yesterday, Massa admitted that he wasn’t sure about the tyres until the end of the race but is glad to have changed his driving style to survive. Massa stated the following:-
‘I was not so sure about keeping the tyres until the end – for me it did not seem possible, but I changed completely my driving style. I was driving like a grandmother! Completely like that.’
Even though Massa was unsure if the tyres would keep to the end, he changed his driving style to try and help them get to the end of the race. With Massa that he stated he drove like a ‘grandmother’, this was enough for him to finish the race and that is all that matters.
Further on in his interview yesterday, Massa has stated that he feels sorry for his team mate after he suffered a lack of grip at the end of the race with his tyres but is happy with his performance in Singapore on Sunday. Massa added the following:-
‘I feel sorry for him [Valtteri] because he was right behind me for the whole race, but for me – definitely I think we finished in the best position we could finish, so I’m very happy with the race. I’m very happy with what we did. The strategy I was behind Kimi [Raikkonen] so we managed to stop before, I passed him and stayed in front of him for the rest of the race.
‘So the team did a great job. I wasn’t so sure about keeping the tyres until the end. For me it was not possible to stay until the end but I completely changed my driving style and I managed to keep the tyres until the end. For me that was really positive, so I’m very happy with what we did in the race.’
For Massa to publically state that he felt sorry for Bottas is really nice to see as Bottas had a strong race and it was a shame for him to lose so much grip in his tyres and losing as many places as he did at the end of the Grand Prix. But I would agree with Massa and I feel that he achieved the best result he could have managed from Singapore this weekend and he should be happy with the performance he put in over the weekend too.
As Massa has stated in his interview, the strategy calls that the Williams team made for him paid off and he was able to pass Raikkonen in the process. As Massa points out, even if he didn’t feel the tyres would have lasted, he did just enough to get the grip he needed for them and seeing him thanking the Williams team for their hard work is great to see.
And overall, Massa should be happy with what he achieved in Singapore. He and the Williams team struggled to get the performance and pace they needed in the early stages of the weekend, but they got the pace where it mattered most, on the Sunday in the race. Even though there was concerns with the tyres, Massa changed his driving style in order to adapt to the situation, was rewarded with a good result and will want to build on this for the remaining races of the season.
With Suzuka being two weeks away, can Massa once again achieve the performance he did in Singapore? Only time will tell.
