Felipe Massa has suggested that the Monaco street circuit will be even more dangerous without the traction control systems that featured in
Formula One of late.
Coming shortly after Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug's comments that the removal of the electronic aid could lead to more accidents than usual in the Principality this year, Massa has suggested that the race will be even more of a lottery - especially if rain arrives as forecast.
"Everywhere will be a danger area," he insisted, "For sure, maybe, here, it was already quite difficult
with traction control [but], without traction control, it will be a lottery.
"Who is driving very carefully will maybe have a chance to win the race, but the problem is that you start learning all the corners in the wet without traction control, but then you start to go, every lap, more and more to see the limit. Sometimes, if you pass that limit a little bit, you are already in the wall. It was like that with traction control, without it I don't know how it is going to be. But it will be very tough."
Massa openly admits to not enjoying the tight confines of street circuits, and allows that his technique probably isn't best suited to Monaco.
"I have had some good results here, but it is not one of my favourite circuits," he confessed, "I enjoy much more a real circuit like Spa or Turkey - even the new circuits, Bahrain and China, I prefer much more than here.
"A street circuit is not very fun to drive. It looks like sometimes that, if you push a little bit, you are slow, so you need to drive very technical, you need to be very careful as, if you brake a little bit late, sometimes you gain in the braking, but you lose in the exit. It is very different driving here than the other circuits."
Unlike Massa, who appeared to struggle to come to terms with the loss of traction control over the winter, Monaco veteran
Giancarlo Fisichella stopped short of suggesting that
F1's blue riband race would be more dangerous or unpredictable, although he did concede that it would be harder than in recent years.
