Felipe Massa is hoping his Ferrari team can take a significant step forward in Turkey thanks to the upgrades to be introduced this weekend.
The Italian squad, which has endured a tough start to the season, is bringing new front and rear wings, plus modified brake ducts to Istanbul in the hope of moving closer to the top of the field. Massa admits, however, it is hard to predict how useful the new components will be.
"I hope we can have an interesting step," said Massa. "In the races we have a good step compared to qualifying, so I hope we can have a good step to fight with Red Bull, which is very strong. For sure everyone is working hard to improve the car.
"It's always difficult to say how the new parts will go. I hope we understand so many important things that make the car stronger but we don't know how it is going to be. We always have an idea how it is going to be with the new pieces but we don't have an idea about the other teams or how everyone is working, especially before you try with all these new things."
The Brazilian, a three-time winner in Turkey, acknowledges the gap to Red Bull is too big, but he is adamant Ferrari will not give up on its efforts to win again.
"I had good years, great cars, fighting and winning from the beginning, but we had some difficult years like 2009. It is also clear that we never give up, but the difference is also quite big so we need to have our feet on the ground and to work to improve the car – and I would say more in qualifying.
"In the race, we showed we had a much more competitive car compared to qualifying and looking at how many points Sebastian [Vettel] has and the team has; it is important for sure to have a good step and to be very close to fight."