Massa delighted as Williams enjoys best qualifying of season at Silverstone - MotorSportsTalk

Felipe Massa made no secret of his happiness after Williams enjoyed its strongest qualifying of the 2015 Formula 1 season so far at Silverstone on Saturday.

Massa qualified third for tomorrow’s British Grand Prix ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas as both managed to beat nearest rivals Ferrari for the first time this season.

“I think it was a fantastic day for us,” Massa said. “It’s amazing to see how many people are here. It’s also our home grand prix for the team, so I’m sure it was great to see me and Valtteri third and fourth.

“We were fighting each other through the qualifying, especially in Q3. Just managed to get a fantastic lap at the end. So happy. Really looking forward that tomorrow we can have a strong race especially in this fight with Ferrari.”

Ferrari has led the way in the battle to be ‘best of the rest’ behind Mercedes at the front, winning in Malaysia and claiming five further podium finishes.

However, Massa was delighted that Williams managed to beat both of the Italian marque’s cars so comfortably in qualifying on Saturday, and hopes that this form can carry over into the race.

“Today I think is a very important day to us to see that we can be in front of Ferrari with both cars, and I hope we can be also tomorrow,” he said.

“It’s really nice and I’m very happy with what we did today. Just need to concentrate on tomorrow now.”

The British Grand Prix is live on CNBC and Live Extra from 7:30am ET on Sunday.

Follow @LukeSmithF1

An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”