Massa rates new Ferrari as ‘an eight’

Massa at Mugello in the new F60

Felipe Massa has scored Ferrari's new F60 'a strong eight for reliability' after his first fully dry day of pre-season testing at Mugello.

Felipe Massa has said he is 80 per cent confident in the reliability of Ferrari's new F60 after the last day of testing at the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello in Italy.

The 2008 World Championship runner-up spent most of the day on slick tires, accumulating a significant amount of data over the course of the 103 laps he completed, with a fastest lap time of 1min 23.981s.

A hydraulic issue may have brought a slightly premature end to the 27-year-old's running shortly before the scheduled end to the session, but he nevertheless professed himself buoyed by early progress.

"I am pleased with the way these past days have gone," Massa stated. "Finally today we were able to test the car in the dry continuously. First impressions are positive, even if it is obviously too early to say what level we are at, partly because we had no competitors here to compare ourselves with.

"However, if I was asked to give a verdict on this test, I would score it a strong eight for reliability, given that we have covered over 1,500 kilometers. It's true a lot of that was in the wet, but given the conditions experienced in Portimao, I think the decision to come to Mugello was the right one."

The Scuderia's new car has come under scrutiny from some rival teams over the legality of its exhaust pipe.