Montezemolo: Massa needs to take points off rivals

Luca di Montezemolo has outlined Felipe Massa's duties for the remainder of the season: to take points off Fernando Alonso's rivals

With four races still be run and a 100 points to play for, Alonso is second in the Drivers' standings, 11 points behind Championship leader Mark Webber. But they are not the only two drivers in the race.

Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button all still have a shot at winning the title with Button in fifth place just 25 points off the pace.

Alonso, though, has an advantage over his title rivals as the Ferrari driver is the only man involved in the chase who can have his team-mate working for him instead of against him.

And that's exactly what Ferrari's president wants Massa to do.

"I have waited for Felipe with great perseverance in the last four races," Montezemolo told Gazzetta dello Sport.

"I want a strong Massa who will shave points off the rivals. In Singapore he had some bad luck, but he is in good condition to win.

"Those who race for Ferrari don't race for themselves, but for the Ferrari team colours. One who wants to race for himself will have to face his team."

The Ferrari President also insisted that the Scuderia's decision to put their efforts behind Alonso as early as the July's German GP when they implemented team orders in the Spaniard's favour, has been justified by his run to second place in the Drivers' standings.

"First of all, the decision to focus on Alonso has been proven to be right. He is extremely strong and very close to the team, and has been able to blend in well from day one despite the concerns of some.

"The second is the spirit of determination of the team that has never been broken and disjointed, it has shown great ability to respond and fight back and knows how to win even under pressure.

"The third is to have also focused on people like (Stefano) Domenicali and (Aldo) Costa who have proven be absolutely vital."

Montezemolo pointed to Ferrari's pedigree in recent years as a sure sign that the Scuderia have what it takes to win Championships.

"I've been thinking about one thing and I invite you to do so too: from 1997, if we exclude the year 2005, we either won the Formula 1 World Championship or we lost it in the last race.

"Ferrari has always been team to beat. We won eight Constructors' World Championships in the last ten years, it was important for me to reach the highest levels in Formula 1 this year as well.

"We're second and we will contest the Championships until the very end."

Source: Planet-F1