Felipe Massa is determined to beat his Ferrari team-mate this year © Ferrari Enlarge Related Links Drivers:

Fernando Alonso

|

Felipe Massa Teams:

Ferrari

Felipe Massa says he will "try everything" to get in front of Ferrari team-mate Fernando Alonso this year, after three seasons trailing the Spaniard in the standings.

Massa scored less than half the points of Alonso in 2012 and faced criticism in the early part of the season as he struggled to get close to the pace of his team-mate. But the Brazilian insists the gap to Alonso is not as big as some people like to believe and he is determined to tip the scales in his favour this year.

"I think you are always comparing with strong drivers, you are in the top level in the world," he said in a Ferrari web chat. "Many people sometimes think maybe he's behind his team-mate by two tenths and sometimes people think it's negative, but you are in the top of the top in the world. Sometimes we forget that.

"I think when you are behind you need to work to be in front and that's what I'm doing. I will try everything to be in front of my team-mate, but also everybody is racing with me."

He added that he would not be 100% happy until he is back at the front of the grid fighting for championships.

"Always when you are not in front of your team-mate, or whoever is racing with you, you are not 100% happy. You are only 100% happy when you are in front and winning the race, winning the championship or whatever. When you are in front is what makes you the most happy guy in the world.

"But I think having a strong team-mate makes you better as well. I think you learn a lot more and I think definitely when you are in a top team, for sure, you're going to have a strong team-mate; when you drive for Ferrari you're going to have a strong team-mate. This is what happened in all these years I have been racing for Ferrari, so I had Michael Schumacher, I had Kimi Raikkonen and I had Fernando Alonso."