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Williams a different team - Massa

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Felipe Massa says Williams is “a different team” and much more prepared to be successful this season than last year.

Having joined from Ferrari, Massa said Williams had a number of changes it needed to make to be able to compete at the front of the grid last season. While the team had a quick car it failed to win a race while Red Bull took three wins, but after his first day of pre-season testing at Jerez is confident the team has a better chance of success with its current set-up.

“It’s a different team,” Massa said. “It’s a lot better team, much more prepared, much more experienced, everything is different. The team is a lot more prepared, it’s in much better shape compared to how we started last year. We had a good car, we had a fantastic season, the development was great but I think the team is a lot more prepared, which is good.”

And Massa was also encouraged by his first impressions of the new Williams FW37.

“It was good. I think it was a good feeling today in the car, a positive feeling from the car when driving. We’re still not where I should be, just the first impressions were very positive. It’s still a lot of working and a lot of developing until everything is correct for the first race.

“I’m so happy. I’m really happy to feel the car. I think in some areas we improved, I feel the car is more stable than last year, a bit easier to drive, I think that’s positive.

“I’m talking just about the chassis, the stability and just this type of development. The engine we’re still not running what we’re supposed to have so the engine is not the main point until now because we’re still not running what I hope we will run.”

Click here for the full gallery from day three of testing at Jerez

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.