Yesterday, Sunday, saw the third and penultimate day of testing for Scuderia Ferrari and the eleven other Formula 1 teams, working until this afternoon at the Montmelo circuit, outside Barcelona. In the morning Massa's testing work was affected by the track conditions, as the surface was wet almost up to the lunch break.

This meant the Brazilian driver was able to run fairly continuously on the Pirelli intermediate tyres. However he did have a couple of off-track excursions, although the car was undamaged. In the afternoon, on a completely dry track, Massa concentrated on a race simulation, which was successfully completed. He drove a total of 123 laps, with a best time of 1.26.508, the tenth quickest time of the day.

Massa took over from team mate Fernando Alonso who was in the cockpit on Friday and Saturday for the opening two days in Barcelona. Saturday, Alonso's final session of the four day test turned into the day when the so far reliable F150th Italia ran into problems. The development of the new car, apart from a small yet spectacular failure which caused a fire during Massa's first day of testing in Valencia, has proceeded almost without a hitch up until Saturday, when it was delayed by glitches. The first was electrical and did not cost too much in terms of time, even if the car had to stop out on track, while the second, a mechanical problem, took over a couple of hours to resolve. But that's what testing is about, exposing potential problems: better here than at a race weekend. The Spanish driver was therefore unable to work through all the planned programme, however, the amount of data gathered, especially in terms of that relating to the behaviour of the new Pirelli tyres, is still substantial.

"One of the mechanics said to me that when things go well in Barcelona, we don’t win the championship, while if we have problems here, then it’s a different story: let’s hope that’s really the case!” was the philosophical comment from Alonso when talking to the media during a break in the session on Saturday, as once testing finished, he left immediately for San Remo, where his wife Raquel is taking part in the finals of the Festival of Italian Song. "I still believe that, at the moment the Red Bull is the strongest car, but there are at least four other teams – us, McLaren, Mercedes and Renault – that are capable of fighting for the wins. It is always very difficult to assess the results from testing: it only takes ten kilos more or less fuel or for worn tyres to be used at any one point in the day, to make a difference that can amount to seconds."

Alonso is certain that tyres hold the key to the season: "Here again we saw degradation similar to what we had noticed both in Valencia and Jerez at the first two tests. If we had to race at the Catalunya Circuit tomorrow, we would need three or even four stops to finish the race, however it will not be just a case of changing the way we tackle the race, but also the entire weekend track time, from free practice through to qualifying. Tyre wear will definitely create the best overtaking opportunities: if you find yourself fighting against a driver on tyres that are at the start or the end of their stint, the performance difference could be very big, which would make for overtaking, even more definitely than using KERS and the moveable rear wing."

Apart from technical matters, one obvious topic of discussion has been the situation in Bahrain and its impact on the start of the Formula 1 World Championship. Alonso's response was inevitably cautious: “It is hard for us to state a clear cut position, because in the end we only know as much as you journalists, given we are following the situation through the media. We have to wait a few more days and then the powers that be will make a decision."

Sunday (22/02/2011) test times, Barcelona:

1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes GP, 1:23.168, 92 laps
2. Vitaly Petrov, Renault, 1:23.463, 93
3. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 1:23.858, 93
4. Pastor Maldonado, Williams, 1:24.815, 60
5. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 1:24.995, 139
6. Jarno Trulli, Lotus, 1:25.454, 48
7. Sergio Perez, Sauber, 1:25.557, 115
8. Adrian Sutil, Force India, 1:25.720, 102
9. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso, 1:26.155, 31
10. Felipe Massa, Ferrari, 1:26.508, 123
11. Timo Glock, Virgin, 1:26.598, 97
12. Giorgio Mondini, HRT, 1:28.178, 39
13. Daniel Ricciardo, Toro Rosso, 1:28.329, 42
14. Narain Karthikeyan, HRT, 1:30.722, 32

Test Details (20/02/2011)
 

Circuit:	Circuit de Catalunya – 4.655 km
Driver:	Felipe Massa
Car:	Ferrari F150th Italia
Weather:	Air temperature 8/15°C, track temperature 8/18°C. Overcast with a wet track in the morning, cloudy, gradually lifting through the afternoon.