San Marino: Massa Rates Qualifying as Critical

By Jamie Makin
April 19 2005

Team SAUBER PETRONAS driver Felipe Massa may have only contested two Formula One races at the Imola circuit, but it is a track where he has tasted victory before in other open-wheel racing series.

"I like Imola very much, because I have won races there in Formula Renault and Formula 3000," recalled the young Brazilian driver. "It has a wonderful ambiance and a lot of character and history."

In his past two San Marino grand prix he has finished in the top ten but only improved by as many as three places during the race. "The only problem is that it is so very difficult to pass anyone there. Qualifying is therefore even more important than usual," explained Massa. SAUBER has used recent practice sessions to work on race setup, thus sacrificing qualifying efforts, but they may have to change that strategy for this weekend's race.

Massa's experience on the track gives him a good idea on what he is looking for in car setup. "The circuit has very high kerbs and being able to ride them is the key to a fast lap, so we always run with a slightly higher ride height to cater for this," began Massa. "There isn't really any penalty in lap time, but it's a little bit of a compromise. Imola is also quite bumpy these days, especially on the pit straight. We were scheduled to do a three-day test there prior to Melbourne, but after one day we got snowed off. However, in that day we were able to start establishing a set-up baseline for the SAUBER PETRONAS C24 and to get a feel for how the car goes there."

Massa has not been worried as worried about January's snowed-out test because of other recent improvements to the C24. "We have also tested more recently in Barcelona, where we tried some new parts which we will use in Imola, so I am optimistic that we can do well there," he mused.

Felipe Massa - Results for San Marino GP:

YEAR	QUAL	RACE	COMMENTS
2004	12	10	-
2002	11	8	-

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