Massa focused on business

Brazilian plays down question of favouritism within Ferrari

Last updated: 26th August 2008

Felipe Massa Ferrari European Grand Prix Aug 08

Massa: Seven ahead of Raikkonen

Felipe Massa admits he is focusing on his own performance as speculation grows that Ferrari could focus on the Brazilian's push for the drivers' championship.

With team-mate and reigning world champion Kimi Raikkonen's challenge flagging after an engine blowout in Valencia, suggestions that Ferrari could focus on Massa in the final part of the season were downplayed by the driver.

"That's nothing to do with me," said Massa, who is second in the standings with seven points back to Raikkonen. "I will just do my best. If someone has to make that decision, it's not me.

"I always want to beat whichever driver on the track. It doesn't matter if it's my team-mate or not, so it doesn't change anything for me.

"I always wanted to do my best and I did a lot of good results this season, a lot of bad results as well, but the mentality is the same."

Investigation

Meanwhile, Ferrari will launch an investigation into the engine failure suffered by Raikkonen in the European Grand Prix.

It was the second engine failure for Ferrari in as many races and team boss Stefano Domenicali has vowed to get to the root of the problem before the F1 circus heads to Spa in two weeks.

"Unfortunately, once again, we have suffered with a reliability problem, this time on Kimi's car, which lost us precious points," said Domenicali.

"Now we have to find out what happened in yet another engine failure and then decide how to react.

"Clearly what happened is serious and we will have to do all in our power to make up for the ground we have lost through reliability problems in the coming races."