Felipe Massa has blamed a low seating position in the Ferrari F10 as the contributing factor to his overshooting his grid position in readiness for the Belgian Grand Prix.
The FIA recently acknowledged that the Brazilian had overshot his grid slot when the race started and that he should have been penalised. However, it also confirmed that its knowledge of the incident occurred only after amateur footage from the track side showed the error, and not through any direct protests from any teams – this meant that no penalty could be applied.
“I’m maybe the lowest driver in the car, I’m very low in the car and maybe if I was a bit higher, it would be easier to see,” Massa explained in the Monza paddock.
“Definitely I couldn’t see the lines very well, so I was a little bit outside, and that was it,” he added.
The FIA is currently investigating why Massa’s mistake was not picked up by either the trackside marshals or the electronic systems designed to detect grid placement errors or jumped starts.
Maybe the FIA also needs to ask why Massa’s low cockpit position has not contributed to any other grid slot issues before this one?
[Original image via Sutton Images]
Richard Bailey
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