Felipe Massa

In the French Grand Prix, Massa qualified 2nd on the grid behind his teammate Räikkönen. Massa stayed some 3 to 4 seconds behind his teammate for the first half of the race. However, Räikkönen had a developing problem in his exhaust system, which allowed Massa to overtake him and win the race. This win gave Massa lead in the championship, 2 points ahead of Robert Kubica, 5 points ahead of Räikkönen and 10 points ahead of Hamilton. Massa was the first Brazilian to lead the championship since Ayrton Senna in 1993.

He began karting when he was 8 years old, finishing fourth in his first season. He continued in national and international championships for 7 years, and in 1998 moved into Formula Chevrolet, finishing the Brazilian championship in fifth place. During the following season, he won 3 of the 10 races and claimed the championship.

In 2000, Massa moved to Europe to compete in the Italian Formula Renault series, winning both the Italian and the European Formula Renault championships that year. He could have moved to Formula Three, but instead chose the Euro Formula 3000, where he won 6 of the 8 races and the 2001 championship. He was then offered a Formula 1 test with the Sauber team, who signed him for 2002. He also drove for Alfa Romeo in the European Touring Car Championship as a guest driver.

In his rookie year in Formula 1, Massa was paired with 1999 International Formula 3000 champion Nick Heidfeld. He proved he was a competitive driver, but made several mistakes, including spinning off the track several times. Nevertheless, Massa scored 4 championship points in his first season, his best result a 5th place at the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya. He suffered a one race suspension late in the season, forcing him to miss the United States Grand Prix. Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Sauber's former driver, drove for Massa in his place. Massa returned to the driver's seat for the Japanese Grand Prix, but Sauber confirmed that Frentzen would partner Heidfeld in 2003, leaving Massa without a race seat. Instead, he spent a year with Sauber's engine suppliers, Ferrari, gaining experience by testing for the championship-winning team.

Sauber then re-signed Massa for the 2004 season. In 2004, he scored 12 of Sauber's 34 points, his best result being a fourth place at the Belgian Grand Prix. Giancarlo Fisichella scored the team's other 22 points. Massa remained at Sauber in 2005. Though he scored only 11 points, he outpaced his teammate Jacques Villeneuve through most of the season, and beat him in the Drivers' Championship. After Sauber was taken over by BMW, Massa was released and replaced by his former teammate Heidfeld. In 2006, Massa re-joined Ferrari, paired with Michael Schumacher.

Massa started well at Ferrari, qualifying second at the opening race in Bahrain, and coming from 21st position to 5th in Malaysia, beating teammate Michael Schumacher, who had started from 14th. In Bahrain, however, in both Saturday practice and the race, Massa resumed his tendency to spin, narrowly missing Fernando Alonso, the eventual winner of the race. At the Australian GP he crashed his Ferrari in qualifying, then collided with Christian Klien and Nico Rosberg at the first corner of the race. Nevertheless, Massa scored his first career podium at the Nürburgring, finishing third behind Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso. He also set the fastest lap at Barcelona in 2006. Massa had four more podium finishes in 2006, and took his first F1 pole position and his first F1 win at the Turkish Grand Prix at the Istanbul Park circuit. His future position at Ferrari was secured when Michael Schumacher announced on 10 September 2006, he would retire from F1 at the end of the 2006 season. On 22 October, Massa won his home race at the Brazilian Grand Prix, making it the first time a Brazilian driver had won at Interlagos since Ayrton Senna in 1993. Massa finished the season third with 80 points, behind world champion Fernando Alonso and Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher.

Massa remained optimistic stating "For sure we are in a difficult position but we know many things can happen in one race" and "Always when you play at home you usually play better", as the last two years he finished strongly at Interlagos (a 1st in 2006 and a 2nd in 2007). At the last race of the season, the Brazilian Grand Prix the situation for Ferrari was: Felipe Massa was seven points behind Lewis Hamilton, meaning that Massa had to either finish first or second to win, and Hamilton had to be outside the top 5 – the same position Räikkönen had been in a year earlier, when he won the championship.

In October 2007, Massa extended his contract with Ferrari to the end of 2010.

Felipe Massa married Anna Raffaela Bassi on 30 November 2007, in São Paulo, Brazil. The couple's first son, Felipinho (Bassi Massa), was born on 30 November 2009.

Though Massa supports Brazilian football team São Paulo FC, he also supports the Turkish football team Fenerbahçe that was formerly coached by Zico. On 24 August 2007, Massa said: "Zico was my childhood idol, Roberto Carlos is my best friend. I am a Fenerbahçe fan, because it is just like a Brazilian team. I love Turkey, as I won my first championship race in Turkey, it has special value for me."

Massa held a charity kart race, Desafio Internacional das Estrelas (International Challenge of the Stars) every year between 2005 and 2014. Notably, many active top level Brazilian drivers have competed in the event, such as Formula One drivers Rubens Barrichello and Nelson Piquet Jr., drivers who competed in American open wheel events such as Tony Kanaan, Mario Moraes, Felipe Giaffone, Vítor Meira, Roberto Moreno, and Gil de Ferran, and Stock Car Brasil champion Cacá Bueno. In addition, Brazilian motorcycle racer Alex Barros has competed. Michael Schumacher and Luca Badoer joined the Brazilian contingent in 2007. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Jeff Gordon and Jaime Alguersuari have also participated.

Following the 2008 seasons F1.com called Massa "no more the nearly man" and emphatically stating he is "No more the Ferrari number two, Massa is now a contender". His maturity was also praised by Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo, commenting "I can only imagine how painful that moment must have been for him. However, I would like to give him my very special compliments, not only for dominating the running out there on the track in front of his fans, proving he is worthy indeed of the world title, but also for his maturity and sportsmanship off the track. He's a great champion and a great man."

Massa's helmet was blue with a fluorescent yellow X on the sides and a yellow triangle that covers the upper helmet with the top section coloured with a green gradient (prior to F1, this section was blue), in Ferrari early years until 2010, Massa's helmet featured also a white ring surrounding the top. In 2008 the tips of the fluoro yellow X were more ramified. In 2011 on the yellow triangle covered the entire upper front with 2 blue lines in the sides. For his 100th race with Ferrari at the 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix, Massa sported a chrome and gold prancing horse on the top with a further 100 horses representing the races Massa contested with Ferrari. The design also featured gold, blue and green spreading out over the helmet.

Felipe Massa gave Ferrari's 2009 challenger – the F60 – its shakedown test at Mugello on 12 January 2009.

On 25 July 2009, in the second round of qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, Massa's head, though protected by his driver's helmet, was struck by a suspension spring that had fallen from Rubens Barrichello's Brawn, on a high-speed part of the track. He subsequently crashed head-on into a tyre barrier. Massa was airlifted to the ÁEK hospital in Budapest, where he underwent surgery in the area surrounding his left eye. His condition was initially described as "life-threatening but stable", but improved rapidly. Massa was discharged from hospital the following week and returned to Brazil. After further tests it was decided Massa needed a titanium plate inserted into his skull to strengthen it for racing. Ferrari consultant and seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher was asked to take over Massa's race seat during his recovery, but his comeback was prevented by neck injuries sustained during a motorcycle accident earlier in the year. Ferrari test driver Luca Badoer was confirmed as Massa's substitute for the European and Belgian Grands Prix. After two races in which Badoer failed to score a single point, on 3 September 2009 Ferrari announced that Massa's place for the rest of the season would instead be taken by Giancarlo Fisichella who had signed a deal to be a Ferrari test driver for 2010 and had driven for Force India throughout the 2009 season.

As part of his return to Formula One Massa undertook a series of neurological examinations, co-ordinated by the FIA's medical delegate, in Paris on 10 October 2009. The successful completion of these tests led to the announcement by Ferrari that Massa would, from 12 October 2009 be driving a 2007 Formula One car in order to continue re-acclimatising to racing. He waved the chequered flag at the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix.

At the 2010 German Grand Prix Ferrari were investigated for team orders as Massa took the race lead early, ahead of Fernando Alonso in second and Sebastian Vettel close behind in third. During the race these positions were maintained until Massa received instructions from Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley, saying "Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?". Shortly afterwards, on lap 49, Massa allowed Alonso to take the lead, and consequently to win the race. Smedley then added after the pass 'Ok mate good lad, stick with him now, sorry.' The incident strongly suggested that a team order had been made to Massa to let Alonso overtake, and race stewards agreed. Despite team boss Stefano Domenicali's denial, Ferrari were fined $100,000 for breaking Sporting Regulations and the matter was referred to the FIA World Motor Sport Council. Massa finished 4th in Hungary and Belgium and third in Italy. In Singapore, he qualified last due to a gearbox issue, but finished the race eighth. Massa collided with Vitantonio Liuzzi on the first lap of the Japanese Grand Prix but finished third in Korea. He finished a disappointing 15th in Brazil, and tenth in Abu Dhabi. Massa ended the season ranked sixth in the Drivers' Championship.

Massa remained with Scuderia Ferrari in 2011, and again was partnered with Fernando Alonso. He drove his new car – the Ferrari 150º Italia – for the first time on 29 January 2011, undertaking a shakedown of the car at the Fiorano Circuit.

Massa out-qualified Alonso for only the second time in 2011, in Belgium; but he fell from fourth to eighth in the race. Massa took another sixth-place finish at the Italian Grand Prix, after he was spun round by Webber on lap five. Hamilton made contact with Massa for the third time in 2011, when attempting to overtake him for eighth in the Singapore Grand Prix. Hamilton punctured Massa's right-rear tyre with his front wing, an incident for which Hamilton received a drive-through penalty. This followed an incident in qualifying where Hamilton lunged down Massa's inside, attempting to pass on an out-lap, which led Massa to publicly criticise Hamilton. Massa also went up to Hamilton in the post-race TV interview area as he was about to start an interview with RTL Television, patted his shoulder, and sarcastically said: "Good job, bro." It was later reported that during the race Massa's engineer Rob Smedley sent a radio message to Massa stating "Hold Hamilton as much as we can. Destroy his race as much as we can. Come on, boy..." Hamilton and Massa collided at the next race in Japan, damaging Massa's front wing endplate, but he eventually finished in seventh place. After the race, Massa called for the FIA to take action on Hamilton. After finishing sixth at the Korean Grand Prix, he crashed in qualifying for the Indian Grand Prix after he broke his suspension on a kerb and then hit the barriers. In the race, he once again collided with Hamilton on the 24th lap of the Indian Grand Prix, for the fifth time this season, this time however with Massa being awarded a drive-through penalty. He retired later after hitting a kerb too hard, the same fate which ended his qualifying session. He rounded off the year with two fifth-place finishes in Abu Dhabi and Brazil.

He finished 16th in Valencia, after Kobayashi made contact with him at the restart. A great weekend followed in Silverstone, as he qualified 5th and finished 4th, despite Alonso's pole and second place. Massa finished 12th in Hockenheim, where he hit Daniel Ricciardo on the first lap and as a result, removed his own front wing. Massa added a ninth-place finish in Hungary. After qualifying 14th at Spa, Massa finished 5th in the race, earning 10 points and climbing to eleventh position in the driver standings, with the same points as Michael Schumacher. Massa took his best qualifying result of the season so far and got third place grid position at Monza. After a great start he made his way up to second position but finished the race in fourth after being passed by Alonso and Pérez in the closing laps. In Suzuka, Massa qualified 11th, but started 10th due to a gearbox penalty for Nico Hülkenberg. He made a great start after his teammate Alonso retired at the first corner of the first lap, and went on to finish in 2nd position, his first podium since the 2010 Korean Grand Prix. Massa qualified 6th for the 2012 Korean Grand Prix. He maintained 6th position after the first corner, and overtook Räikkönen on the first lap. After a few laps he also made a move on Lewis Hamilton, giving him 4th position. He had great pace throughout, with the possibility to overtake Alonso and even Webber, but because Alonso is fighting for the Drivers' Championship, Massa was told to hold station. On 16 October 2012, Massa signed a 1-year contract with Ferrari. This came as a result of an impressive string of results for the Scuderia, and means that Massa is under contract to race with Ferrari until the end of 2013. In India, Massa qualified 6th and finished 6th, despite having to save fuel and being hounded by Räikkönen the whole race. In Abu Dhabi, Massa qualified 9th but started on the grid in 8th as a result of Vettel's penalty. He ran as high as 7th until he spun when fighting with Mark Webber, but drove well and worked his way up to 7th again. At the US Grand Prix, Massa outqualified teammate Alonso for only the second time this year. But then Ferrari tactically broke his gearbox seal to move Alonso onto the clean side of the grid. This demoted Massa to 11th but he drove a storming race to finish 4th. At the final race of the season in Brazil, Massa again outqualified teammate Alonso for the second straight race to start 5th. At the start of the race Massa made his way up into 2nd place, only to fall down to 11th after some bad strategical decisions with the ever-changing weather conditions at Interlagos. Then thanks to a safety car, the field bunched up and Massa made his way through the field into 2nd but had to yield to title-chasing teammate Alonso. Eventually Massa finished 3rd on the podium in front of his home crowd to end a good second half of the season for him.

On 18 September 2012, Massa participated on a world record event at Silverstone where 964 Ferrari cars, 36 shy of their target of 1000, assembled together on the track. This spectacle was witnessed by 25,000 fans which features Massa's 2008 car driven by Ferrari test driver Marc Gené.

On 10 September 2013, Massa confirmed that he would be leaving Ferrari at the end of the season on Instagram and Twitter. The following day, it was announced that Massa's former teammate, Kimi Räikkönen, would be his replacement at Ferrari.

On 11 November 2013, Williams announced that Massa would partner Valtteri Bottas for the 2014 season replacing Pastor Maldonado.

In Belgium Massa looked to be heading for his 1st pole position since the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix when he set the fastest time in wet conditions at the beginning of Q3 but the track dried and Ferrari had decided to leave Massa in the garage as they thought his time was good enough for pole so he dropped back to 10th, one place behind teammate Alonso. In the race Massa finished 7th behind Alonso who finished 2nd. In Ferrari's home race in Italy Massa qualified 4th, one place ahead of his teammate. He then jumped Red Bull's Mark Webber and Sauber's Nico Hülkenberg who qualified in a brilliant 3rd when the best he had managed all season was 10th in a slow car. Hülkenberg was one of the drivers who was in a chance of taking Massa's seat in 2014. Despite Massa's great start he moved over for Alonso who was race leader Sebastian Vettel's closest championship rival. Massa dropped to fourth in the pit stop phase after staying out longer than Alonso and Webber, but he fought back to challenge them for a podium, ultimately finishing in fourth place.

On 7 September 2014 it was confirmed that Massa, along with Bottas, would stay at Williams for 2015. On the same day, he scored his first podium for Williams, finishing third in the Italian Grand Prix.

On 9 November 2014 Massa took his second podium for Williams at the Brazilian Grand Prix as he finished third behind second placed Lewis Hamilton and winner Nico Rosberg. Massa ended Williams's competitive season on a high with what he described as his "best race of the year" at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. Although qualifying in fourth – one place behind teammate Bottas – he showed good pace in the whole weekend and finished a strong second after Rosberg's subsequent power-unit problems, even making a late but convincing challenge on race leader Hamilton in the final third of the race.

At round 5 of the season, the Spanish Grand Prix, Massa was knocked out in Q1, after losing time with traffic during his first run, and then failing to have enough time to go out again for a second run. It was the first time since Russia in 2014 that Massa was knocked out in Q1. In the race, Massa made solid progress, to finish in eighth after utilising an aggressive 3 stop strategy. The sixth event of the 2016 championship, the Monaco Grand Prix, did not start well for Massa as he crashed at Saint Devote in first practice. On Saturday he qualified in P14, but in a race that begun in wet conditions, Massa progressed to finish tenth and score one point, becoming the only driver at that point in the season to have scored points in every race.

Massa's 2015 season started strongly, with a fourth-place finish in Australia. After some further strong results in Malaysia and China, Massa had troubles in the next stage of the season. He suffered from mechanical issues both on the grid in Bahrain and in qualifying in Canada, meaning he had to fight from towards the back on each occasion, albeit eventually finishing both races in the points.

The 2016 season started well for Massa; after qualifying in a solid sixth place for the first race of the season in Australia, he drove a lonely race to finish fifth, collecting 10 points. In the second round of the season, in Bahrain, Massa qualified in seventh, 0.002 seconds behind his teammate. After an excellent start, Massa climbed up to second until the first round of pit stops, which saw Williams followed a conservative 2-stop strategy, using the medium compound. The strategy did not work out, and Massa finished the race in eighth, after being overtaken on the last lap by Red Bull Racing driver Daniil Kvyat.

On 1 September 2016, Massa announced that he would retire from Formula One at the end of the season.

On 16 January 2017, Massa rejoined Williams after Valtteri Bottas signed with Mercedes. In the first race of the season, the Australian Grand Prix, Massa qualified in seventh and finished in sixth. In China, he qualified in sixth. In the race, he struggled with the changing conditions to finish in 14th. Next, in Bahrain, Massa qualified in eighth and finished a strong sixth. In Russia, he qualified in sixth. In the race, he suffered 2 punctures and finished in ninth. Moving on to Spain, Massa qualified in ninth. In the race, he made a good start but made contact with McLaren driver Fernando Alonso and suffered a puncture. As a result, he finished out of the points, in 13th. In Monaco, Massa qualified only in 15th, as he was caught by yellow flags caused by Stoffel Vandoorne. In the race, he kept out of trouble to finish in ninth, collecting 2 points. In Montreal, Massa qualified a solid 7th. His race was short lived, as he was taken out by a spinning Carlos Sainz Jr. at turn 3. Two weeks later in Azerbaijan, Massa qualified in 9th behind his teammate Lance Stroll for the first time that season and ahead of the eventual race winner Daniel Ricciardo. In the race, Massa had a good start, avoiding the turn 2 collision between Kimi Räikkönen and Valtteri Bottas, climbing up to sixth. Massa showed good pace throughout the race and managed to climb up to third passing both Kimi Räikkönen and Sergio Pérez during the safety car restarts and almost pulled off a sublime move on Sebastian Vettel for second place, before the race was red-flagged due to large amounts of debris around the track. When the race restarted, Massa suffered from broken rear damper and had to retire from the race on lap 25. A race many people believed Massa could have won.

2017 was a difficult year for Williams as a whole due to a lack of downforce (affecting tyre wear to an extent) from the car in addition to poor wet weather drivability as shown in races such as China where Massa started 6th but finished outside of the points. Williams began with a superior car to the midfield teams such as Force India but fell behind in the development race midseason.

In April 2018 it was announced that Massa would be taking part in Formula E racing for Venturi Grand Prix for 3 years starting with the 2018–19 Formula E season. On the final day of the 2019-2020 season it was announced Massa would be retiring from Formula E. Felipe Massa decided not to exercise the option in his contract to stay with Venturi for the 2020-21 Formula E season.

Singapore Grand Prix

Happy birthday Felipe Massa! We hope to see you again at the #SingaporeGP!

Ferrari Feature - Happy birthday Felipe Massa

Ferrari Feature