Background and career
Felipe Massa (Brazilian Portuguese: [feˈlipi ˈmasɐ, fiˈ-]; born 25 April 1981) is a Brazilian racing driver, who competes in the Stock Car Pro Series for TMG and in the IMSA SportsCar Championship for Riley. Massa competed in Formula One from 2002 to 2017, and was runner-up in the World Drivers' Championship in 2008 with Ferrari; he won 11 Grands Prix across 15 seasons. Born in São Paulo and raised in Botucatu, Massa started his career in karting aged eight, winning national and regional championships before progressing to junior formulae in 1998. Massa won several championships in Formula Chevrolet and Formula Renault, before winning the Euro Formula 3000 Championship in 2001 with Draco. Massa signed for Sauber in 2002 to partner Nick Heidfeld, making his Formula One debut at the Australian Grand Prix. Despite scoring several points finishes in his rookie season, Massa was replaced by Heinz-Harald Frentzen in 2003 and became a test driver for Ferrari. Massa returned to Sauber the following year, remaining with the team for two seasons before signing with Ferrari in 2006 to partner Michael Schumacher. Massa took his maiden win from pole position at the Turkish Grand Prix, and became the first Brazilian driver since Ayrton Senna to win his home Grand Prix. He then took several wins in a four-way title battle with Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and new teammate Kimi Räikkönen, with the latter taking the championship. Massa took six wins in his 2008 campaign, but lost the World Drivers' Championship by one point to Hamilton on the last lap of the last race of the season. Details later emerged of race-fixing at the Singapore Grand Prix—commonly known as Crashgate—that Massa claims lost him the title, taking legal action against the FIA in 2023, which was to go to trial in 2026. At the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix, Massa was seriously injured during qualifying when a suspension spring from the Brawn BGP 001 of Rubens Barrichello struck his helmet at 162 mph (261 km/h), and was replaced by Luca Badoer and Giancarlo Fisichella for the remainder of the 2009 season. Massa returned to Ferrari in 2010 to partner Fernando Alonso, briefly leading the championship after the Malaysian Grand Prix. After struggling for form over the next three seasons, Massa left Ferrari at the conclusion of his 2013 campaign, having contributed to two World Constructors' Championships. Massa partnered Valtteri Bottas at Williams in 2014, taking his first pole position in six years at the Austrian Grand Prix amongst several podiums. He took multiple podiums the following season with Williams, before announcing his retirement at the end of 2016. The abrupt retirement of Nico Rosberg, however, saw Bottas move to Mercedes and Massa postpone his retirement to the end of the 2017 season, having achieved 11 wins, 16 pole positions, 15 fastest laps and 41 podiums in Formula One. Outside of Formula One, Massa competed in Formula E from 2018 to 2020 for Venturi, and has competed in the Stock Car Pro Series in Brazil since 2018. He also entered the Porsche Carrera Cup Brasil in 2020 alongside Lico Kaesemodel. In kart racing, Massa hosted the charity Desafio Internacional das Estrelas race until 2014, and was the president of the Commission Internationale de Karting from 2017 to 2022.
Massa was born in São Paulo and grew up in Botucatu, in São Paulo countryside. He is of Italian descent. His grandparents came from the town of Cerignola, located in the province of Foggia, Italy. Massa began karting when he was eight years old, finishing fourth in his first season. He continued in national and international championships for seven years, and in 1998 moved into Formula Chevrolet, finishing the Brazilian championship in fifth place. During the following season, he won three of the ten 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 six of the eight 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 four championship points in his first season, his best result a fifth place at the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya. After picking up a ten-place grid drop for an incident during the Italian Grand Prix, he was dropped for the United States Grand Prix in an attempt to circumnavigate the penalty, being replaced by Heinz-Harald Frentzen. 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 twelve 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 eleven points, he outpaced his teammate Jacques Villeneuve through most of the season, and beat him in the Drivers' Championship. In an August 2022 interview, Massa revealed that after Sauber was taken over by BMW, they offered him a three-year contract with the team, however Ferrari exercised their option on him to replace the outgoing Rubens Barrichello, who had signed for Honda for the 2006 season. Massa was then released and replaced by his former teammate Heidfeld and joined Ferrari to partner Michael Schumacher.
Massa qualified second at the opening race in Bahrain, and came from 21st position to fifth in Malaysia, beating teammate Michael Schumacher, who had started from 14th. In Bahrain, however, in both Saturday practice and the race, Massa spun, 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, he scored his first career podium at the Nürburgring, finishing third behind Michael Schumacher and Alonso. He also set the fastest lap at Barcelona in 2006. He 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. Originally, Ferrari had intended to use Massa only for the 2006 season, for they had already signed McLaren's Kimi Räikkönen to partner Schumacher for the 2007 season in 2005. However his future at Ferrari was secured when Schumacher announced in September 2006 that he would retire from Formula One at the end of the season. On 22 October, Massa won his home race at the Brazilian Grand Prix, 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 Alonso and Ferrari teammate Schumacher.
Massa topped the time sheets on five occasions and set the fastest lap for four circuits during the 2007 pre-season testing. However, his 2007 season began with problems. At the season opening Australian Grand Prix, he suffered a gearbox problem during qualifying and required an engine change. Massa started the race from 22nd position due to these problems and a ten-grid-slot penalty for the engine change. He employed a one pitstop strategy for the race and finished in sixth place. Massa's problems continued in Malaysia, where despite qualifying on pole position, the McLarens of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton overtook him at turn one. Massa ran off the track while attempting to overtake Hamilton, and lost two more places, dropping down to fifth place, where he finished the race. However, his season subsequently improved, as he won the Grands Prix of Bahrain and Spain, both from pole position, and finished third in Monaco. The race stewards at the Canadian Grand Prix disqualified Massa for leaving the pit lane while the red light was showing. After this disqualification, he won one more race at the Turkish Grand Prix, and finished on the podium at six more races, including a second-place finish at his home Grand Prix at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Massa led much of the Brazilian Grand Prix, until yielding the lead to teammate Kimi Räikkönen, thus securing Räikkönen's world championship title. Massa finished the 2007 season ranked fourth in the drivers' standing with 94 points.
In October 2007, Massa extended his contract with Ferrari to the end of 2010.
