SHANGHAI, CHINA - Felipe Massa might be fighting an uphill battle against Lewis Hamilton but he is refusing to give up, urging Ferrari to stay optimistic ahead of the championship-deciding Brazilian Grand Prix.

"I'm very optimistic, for sure, and we need to be, everybody in the team," said the Brazilian after finishing second behind the Briton in China to slip seven points adrift with one race of the season left.

"We need to be together, very optimistic and trying to do our job in the best way we can and trying to win." One plus point for Massa is that he will be driving in his home Grand Prix on November 2, which he won in 2006 and finished runner-up to team-mate Kimi Raikkonen last year.

He is certain to have huge support from his fans and thinks this could work on his favour, with the pressure piled on Hamilton.

Massa is also aware that Hamilton was in exactly the same position last year before blowing it with a seventh-place finish in Sao Paulo to hand the title to Raikkonen.

"Always when you play at home you usually play better," he said. "I have had very good experiences in Brazil for the last two years, so hopefully we can repeat that and have a great experience again.

"Until it is finished, we know that in sport many things can happen. We just need to concentrate on our job and try to win the race and then what's happened has happened." A drawback for Ferrari is that their car was considerably slower than the McLarens in China after being lightning quick in Japan the week before, a problem they need to fix ahead of Brazil.

Despite his optimism, Massa knows that there is only so much he can do.

Ultimately, the fate of the world championship is in Hamilton's hands.

"First of all, we will try to win, that's the most important thing," the Ferrari driver said of Brazil.

"Secondly, we see what happens. As you just mentioned, winning is not enough but winning is the most important thing you can do, so first of all we try to win and then we see what happens."