On the even of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, Felipe Massa has said that he is not prepared to adopt a Boobens-esque role within the Ferrari team for the rest of the season, and insists that he will be gunning for victory at the Hungaroring.
Massa suffered the humiliation of gifting his team mate Fernando Alonso victory in last weekend's German GP after leading for most of the race. The team were fined for issuing illegal team orders during the race, but insist that it was Massa's decision to move aside.
Despite the incident seeming to show that Massa was set for a subservient role to Alonso for the rest of the season, with the Spaniard the only realistic title challenger for Ferrari, the Brazilian has insisted that he will be allowed to fight for victories this season.
"The time I say I am number two driver, I will not race any more," he bellowed on Thursday.
When asked what would happen should he be leading from Alonso this weekend in Hungary, he answered simply: "I will win."
Massa claimed to have spoken with the team to understand the situation for the rest of the season, and insisted that they had assured him that he would be allowed to fight for wins.
"For sure I have spoken to everybody inside the team," Massa claimed, slightly implausibly, "As I said I am not here really to race, I am here to win. That is really my point. As long as I am in the condition to win, we need to go to the end, to fight for the victory.
"I am a professional, I work for the team and everybody has to understand my point."
The Brazilian added that the idea of sacrificing personal results for the good of the team was nothing new to him. He pointed out that he had deferred to Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 title decider, and had been supported by the Finn himself a year later when he was fighting with Lewis Hamilton for the title.
"I am working for the team and we know how important it is to work for the team," he rambled, "You remember what happened in 2007 and 2008, so I don't think I have to go through all the points. If the team really has the chance to win the championship, I want the best for the team."
Massa received words of support on Thursday from the original Boobens. Current Williams F1 driver Rubens Barrichello said that he felt sorry for his countryman, and added that no driver should be put in the position that Massa was.
"All I can say is that I am very sorry to him, to see what he had to go through such a bad thing," Barrichello lamented, "Nobody should be able to go through those feelings. Felipe is a friend and I wish he didn't have to go through it."
He added: "When you are racing you want to beat [your team mate], but I wouldn't feel nice and feel good [if a team said] if I give you this and then you win. I never did like it. That is why I changed teams and that is why I went on.
"It is in the hand on the top people to change that. You should be allowed to race. If you don't win the championship by one point, so be it.
"And if you win the championship by one point because someone gave it to you, what is the point? If I had to be a bad guy and be world champion. I don't care. I will teach my boys that, and I will be happy with that."
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