Felipe Massa is currently the best he has ever been in Formula One.
That is the message from Williams head of vehicle performance Rob Smedley, who has worked with Massa for the last nine years.
Smedley was Massa's race engineer at Ferrari from the middle of 2006, before both joined Williams at the start of last season.
Middlesbrough-born Smedley, renowned for his frank remarks, has no doubt the Brazilian is currently at the top of his game at present, on a par with his championship near-miss of 2008.
Following Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix, with Massa a best-of-the-rest fifth behind front-running powerhouses Mercedes and Ferrari, Smedley said: "He had a bloody good weekend. He was right on it.
"I've worked with him for many years and I'm still seeing him develop.
"It's good to see that a lad with 10-plus years of driving Formula One cars is still able to develop and improve.
"One of the biggest changes I've seen in Felipe over the last year and half is not only where he has got his head to, the fact he is very comfortable with himself and his surroundings, but technically how he is managing the tyres is really impressive.
"He knows what to do with the tyres, what corrective action to take, he knows how to get them working in qualifying and how to make them last in the race, as good as any particular car will allow him to do.
"What we're seeing at the moment is the best Felipe Massa we've seen - definitely as good as 2008."
Following the positive end to last year when Williams had the second quickest car, the Grove-based marque were fully expected to be the main challengers to Mercedes this term, but that has not materialised.
Ferrari have leapfrogged Williams in the pecking order, and Smedley knows improvements have to be made if the team are to reel in the leading two marques.
"Can we improve? Of course we can, and we must because we want to be the absolute best," added Smedley.
"We're not the best operationally, we don't have the best car, so we have to keep improving, but the improvement that has been made in the last 12 months with this group of people is marked.
"What that means is it's really positive for the future because when we do develop and have a car capable of wins, then we will go out and get them.
"But we have to get our heads down and start developing, but it's every little bit.
"Formula One is not about sitting back and saying 'I'll wait for somebody else to do it'. The margins are too tight now.
"Every single person in the team has to go out and look for performance."
Source: PA-WIRE
