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Massa lacking 'very little' - Smedley

Rob Smedley thinks Felipe Massa "is a different driver to the way he was at the start of the season" © Getty Images

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Felipe Massa is now lacking "very little" in terms of his performances for Ferrari after his poor start to the season, according to his race engineer Rob Smedley.

Having scored only two points in the opening five races of the season, Massa's seat at Ferrari appeared to be under threat. He responded with a competitive sixth place in Monaco - just six seconds behind winner Mark Webber - and has looked stronger since despite only scoring one point in the last two races. As a result, Smedley believes that a bit of luck is all that Massa requires for him to be finally back to his best.

"Right now, going into Silverstone, there is very little that Felipe is lacking for him to be back where he was in terms of driving and confidence in the car," Smedley told the official Ferrari website. "You need things to go your way and at the last race we didn't have that. Going back to Canada, he made a little mistake at the start, which changed everything and in Monaco he was stuck in a train of traffic for 70 laps. However, in terms of his pace in those recent races and the way he was driving and his confidence, he is a different driver to the way he was at the start of the season. So, we are missing very little, maybe a tiny one percent to make it all start happening for us."

Smedley also believes that Massa's chances in the British Grand Prix this weekend are boosted by the F2012's effectiveness on high-speed circuits such as Silverstone.

"I think our chances are good at Silverstone this weekend, even if it's no secret we still need to develop and have a quicker car. In Valencia we didn't have the quickest car, but compared to the start of the year, we had a much improved car, which is down to a great job from the whole team. However, our car has always been particularly suited to high speed corners and Silverstone is dominated by high speed turns for almost two thirds of the track. I hope therefore that we can go and make the most of it; not only all the recent development work we have done on the F2012, but also the fact that our car is fundamentally good in high speed corners. That is why I feel we are in with a very good chance this weekend."

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