UpdateF1 >> Formula 1 News > Not no.1, but Massa can win title

Main challenger to Hamilton

Aug.26 (GMM) Felipe Massa insists he is not Ferrari's new 'number one' driver, but the Brazilian says he has the support he needs to win the 2008 world championship.

Amid reigning world champion and teammate Kimi Raikkonen's struggle for form in the sister F2008, 27-year-old Massa is on top of his game and in the eyes of many now the main challenger to Lewis Hamilton.

Massa told the German newspaper FAZ that he is not now Ferrari's number one, but he revealed that the team is "100 per cent behind me".

"I have a very good position," he explained. "The team trusts me totally; I get everything that I want and need. And that is the right way to make progress," Massa said.

Many seasoned F1 observers and analysts still doubt whether Massa, despite his 9 wins from 100 grands prix, is a worthy aspirant to F1's ultimate prize.

"I have been underestimated," he insists, "but that doesn't bother me. I know what I can do and what I want to achieve."

Some of Massa's shine at present is magnified by the struggle of his highly-paid teammate, who is receiving a hard time also by the Italian press.

"Nervous and absent-minded, Raikkonen is in a deep crisis," Turin's La Stampa said.

The sports daily Tuttosport even speculates that the Finn's lucrative tenure may end sooner than the wildest of the other current rumours, with Fernando Alonso ready to step in.

Written: Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:44:50