Massa fires safety warning
Felipe Massa has admitted the number of new teams on the Formula One grid for the upcoming season is a safety concern.
Massa, who missed the second half of the last campaign with a fractured skull caused by a freak racing accident in Hungary, fears the likes of unknown quantities Virgin, Lotus and Hispania Racing could cause problems should they be off the pace.
Virgin and Lotus have regularly brought up the rear during pre-season testing in Jerez, while Hispania Racing did not take part in the sessions at all.
"I hope they won't be a danger," said Massa, who will return behind the wheel for Ferrari at this weekend's season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
"There are six to seven teams one second apart while those teams are four seconds behind. It's not good for the sport and not good for them: it's like two different series.
"They'll suffer and we'll suffer too, when we have them in front of us during qualifying."
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Formula One has regularly had a huge gap between the front and the back. Arrows and Minardi used to languish at the back and were lapped regularly without causing too many problems.
As long as the inexperienced drivers get out of the way when faster cars are lapping, there shouldn’t be a problem.