Planet-F1

Ferrari in no rush to hand Massa No1 status

Monday 8th September 2008

Ferrari have no intention of rushing into a decision to support Felipe Massa despite the Brazilian having a hefty advantage over Kimi Raikkonen in the standings.

Massa's victory in Sunday's Belgian GP saw his lead over his team-mate and reigning World Champion grow to 16 points with five races remaining. It also had Massa move to within two points of Championship leader Lewis Hamilton.

But despite the fact that Massa is clearly Ferrari's best-placed driver in the standings, team boss Stefanon Domenicali is not willing to rush into asking Raikkonen to support Massa's campaign.

"We will take the decision in the team interests," Domenicali said.

"In my view, the situation that we have now is something that we need to think about with no rush because it's something that is part of our approach to the races.

"If we feel that it's the right time we are going to do it. But let's take this Sunday, with so many events that we take back home, (and) prepare for Monza in the right way.

"This is the main target that we need to be focused on in the next few days."