Felipe Massa: It’s time to turn the page

Ferrari's Felipe Massa insists he is determined to put his bad start to the 2012 season behind him after a day spent at the team's Maranello headquarters analysing what went wrong for the Brazilian in the year's first two Grands Prix.

In Australia, Massa qualified 16th and then retired from the race after a clash with compatriot Bruno Senna. And in Malaysia's tricky conditions last weekend he finished 15th, almost a lap down on race-winning team mate Fernando Alonso.

"I met my engineer Rob Smedley and I spent a lot of time with [chassis director] Pat Fry, going over everything that happened, because this is the only way I think we can understand the reasons behind these two bad weekends," Massa told the Ferrari website.

"I am disappointed, there is no denying it: not scoring any points in two races hurts, but now it's time to turn the page. It's the not the first time I've gone through a difficult moment like this and I know well that things can change quickly, but now is the moment to do my utmost because I want this negative period to come to an end."

Ferrari have freely admitted that the F2012 is currently far from competitive, despite Alonso's unexpected Kuala Lumpur victory, and Massa says his focus is now on improving the car while maximising his chances in the two remaining flyaway races before the paddock returns to Europe.

"Pat ran through with me the details of the F2012 development programme and we hope we can slightly improve our performance already in Shanghai," he continued. "Both there and at Sakhir, one of my favourite tracks, we will once again be fighting on the counter-attack, trying to fine tune the car as well as possible to make the most of any opportunity, just as Fernando did in Sepang."

Having altered his original post-Malaysia plans in order to visit the Ferrari factory, Massa will now head home to Monaco for a few days with his family before returning to Maranello for further engineering meetings and to spend some time on the simulator.

"I feel there is confidence around me, that the team is united in its support for me and that is very important," he added. "Now I want to transform that into results to pay back all this support. I want things to return to normal, to a situation in which I can show my talent as I have always done and as the team knows I can do."