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Its been a busy week for Felipe Massa who
since his arrival in Maranello back from
Brazil has spent two days in the simulator
as he gears up to get behind the wheel of an
F1 car for the first time since his crash
which could come as soon as next Monday. |
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After a couple of days in a kart last week in Granja Viana,
Brazil (above), on Tuesday Felipe Massa made
a further step ahead getting back behind the
wheel, although the wheel was the one of a
simulator. |
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It
has been a very busy week so far for Felipe
Massa who since his arrival in Maranello back
from his home in Brazil has spent two days in
the simulator as he gears up to get behind the
wheel of an F1 car for the first time since his
crash which could come as soon as next Monday.
The Brazilian
driver is proceeding at full pace with his intensive
recovery programme following his accident in Budapest during
qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix on July 25. After a
couple of days in a kart last week in Granja Viana (Brazil),
on Tuesday he made a further step ahead getting back behind
the wheel, although the wheel was the one of a simulator.
Massa spent
around six hours in Modena, mainly dedicating himself to
regaining confidence with the commands of a single-seater.
“We worked very well, without any problems, Massa said at
the end of the day. “The simulator uses a A1GP single-seater,
so it’s not exactly like Formula 1, but pretty close. I
drove on the track in Barcelona to avoid creating an even
bigger test atmosphere.”
Later on Massa came back to Maranello:
first he went to the gym and then to the computer, answering
questions of the numerous fans, who sent their emails and
wrote in the forum of Ferrari’s website. “I miss Formula 1 a
lot: it’s my passion more than my job. It was hard to stay
in front of the TV and watching the team, also because I had
to get up very early because of the different time-zones,”
Felipe answered jokingly to ‘maranellolover’.
“I’ve been always in contact with Domenicali
and with the boy to keep me updated about what was happening
on the track and at home as far as the next year is
concerned.” ‘Misa-schumimaniac’ asked Felipe if he noticed
any difference to the past driving a kart and today with the
simulator. “No difference at all. I had lots of fun in
Granja Viana and today’s work was more than anything else a
way to get back in contact with a car. Obviously I can’t
wait to get back behind the wheel of a real single-seater.”
Yesterday saw a
second day for Massa testing with the
simulator in Modena during his recovery programme. The Brazilian driver started his day with a
visit at the Gestione Sportiva, where he received a hearty
welcome, before leaving for Modena to race on the virtual
track, assisted by his track engineer Rob Smedley and
performance engineer Giuliano Salvi. Massa drove again on
the track of Barcelona and moved than to his preferred
track, Interlagos, where he already won two races in his
career.
Today Massa will be again in Maranello,
where he will greet staff from more parts of the GeS before he will
chat with the members of the Ferrari.com community as of
12pm. Tomorrow (Friday) will see the Brazilian flying to Paris for check-ups under the
eyes of the FIA, before he comes back to Italy. Early next
week, maybe already on Monday, say Ferrari, Massa will finally get
back on the track in a real Formula 1 single-seater, a F2007
fitted with Bridgestone tyres as used in the GP2 series.
ItaliaspeedTV:
Felipe
Massa arrives back at
Maranello
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