Wet Monaco to prove pivotal
Massa is currently the man in form after taking 28 points from the last 30 on offer following a miserable start to the season in which he drew a blank in the opening two rounds.
The Brazilian is now level on points with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and just seven behind his Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.
Although confidence is understandably high, Massa is on a far-from-happy hunting ground in Monte Carlo, with his best finish being a third last year.
Despite the circuit at the principality being steeped in history, Massa does not class the tight, twisty public roads as “a real track”.
“I don’t like Monaco; I just don’t like it, that’s it,” insisted Massa.
“I prefer tracks like Turkey and Spa, with quick corners — real tracks. Even the new circuits, Bahrain and China, I prefer much more than here. A street circuit is not very fun to drive.
“I just don’t have fun when I drive here, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be competitive.
“I have had some very good races lately and I want to keep scoring a lot of points. I want to keep the momentum going.
“We have a chance to fight again in this race, and I am 100% motivated to fight for the victory again. If it’s possible to win we need to do everything we can, but if not, we need to finish in a good position and bring home as many points as we can.”
However, there could be a real shake-up this weekend as it appears increasingly likely the race will be a wet one, with a 90% chance of rain.
For Massa, such a threat merely heightens his chagrin regarding Monaco, adding: “It was already difficult here with traction control, without it, it will be a lottery.
“Whoever drives very carefully will have a chance to win. But the problem is, without traction control in the wet, you have to learn all over again about the corners. Every lap you push more and more to hit the limit, and sometimes if you pass it, you end up in the wall.
“It was like that with traction control anyway, without I don’t know how it is going to be, other than very tough.”
Meanwhile double world champion Mika Hakkinen believes Lewis Hamilton is a man under pressure inside McLaren.
Hakkinen made his name and won his titles with McLaren, where he sees Hamilton as team leader ahead of Finnish compatriot Heikki Kovalainen following Fernando Alonso’s exit.
“Lewis has an interesting career in front of him at the moment, but he is living in a very extreme situation,” remarked Hakkinen.
“He started his career at McLaren with a double world champion team-mate, and I’m sure he got a lot of good information from him. I’m sure Lewis learned a lot from him in terms of how to operate inside a team and how to set the car up.
“Now Lewis is in a situation where he is the leader of the team, and so he is under pressure to develop the car, make it fast and show he can get results for the team.
“The pressure is very high on him. He definitely has consistent talent and he can provide performance, but as I said, the pressure is part of the game and he could start making mistakes.”
Heading into Sunday’s Grand Prix, the 23-year-old trails current leader and reigning world champion Kimi Raikkonen by seven points.
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