Felipe Massa has signed only a one year contract with Ferrari – a highly unusual situation at the Prancing Horse team. There is also much talk in the paddock of Michael staying at the squad, Raikkonen going to the squad and Valentino Rossi switching from MotoGP. This has lead to widespread rumours that Massa is a placeholder only at Ferrari for the 2006 season.
At a press function at Madonna di Campiglio, Massa responded to all of this: ”Everyone seems to be thinking of 2007 and that is a bit funny. But I am calm. When I talk to the people here, Ross Brawn, Jean Todt and so on, they are talking about 2006.” he said.
Massa then went on to rubbish the Valentino Rossi rumours and stated that he believed Rossi was at least a year’s testing away from a Formula 1 race drive, saying that Rossi has “never even driven go-karts. He’s a huge talent but he has to decide whether to choose F1 or motorcycling.”
Ahem, *cough*, Felipe, perhaps you should go and read up a bit. Rossi got his first 100cc kart when he was five years old and has won several regional karting championships. He raced them until 1993, in fact…
Edu de Jager
DailyF1News.com
