Felipe Massa

Template:F1 driver Felipe Massa (born in São Paulo April 25, 1981) is a Brazilian Formula One racing driver, currently employed by Scuderia Ferrari team and standing second in the 2008 Drivers World Championship. He is under contract to race for Scuderia Ferrari until the end of the 2010 season.

Early career

Massa, a Brazilian whose grandfather came to Brazil from the city of Cerignola, Italy, 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 he moved into Formula Chevrolet, finishing the Brazilian championship in fifth. In the next season, he won 3 of the 10 races and took the championship. In 2000, he moved to Europe to compete in the Italian Formula Renault series, winning both it and the European Formula Renault championship in the same year. Whilst having the opportunity to move into Formula 3, he opted instead for the Formula 3000 Euro-Series, and was dominant, winning 6 of the 8 races to take the championship. He was offered an F1 test with the Sauber team, who promptly signed him for 2002. In the meantime he drove for Alfa Romeo in the European Touring Car Championship as a guest driver.

Formula One career

Sauber (2002, 2004-2005)

Massa driving for Sauber at the 2005 British Grand Prix.

In his rookie year in Formula 1, Massa was paired with 1999 F3000 champion Nick Heidfeld at the Sauber team. Massa showed he was a competitive driver, but made several mistakes during his rookie season, including spinning off the track on several occasions. Massa scored 4 championship points in his first season, with a best result of 5th place at the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya. Massa 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 that race. Although Massa returned to the driver's seat for the Japanese Grand Prix, Sauber confirmed that Frentzen would partner Heidfeld in 2003, leaving Massa without a race seat. Instead, Massa spent a year with Sauber's engine suppliers, Ferrari, gaining experience through testing for the championship-winning team.

After gaining more experience and demonstrating that his mistake rate had declined, Sauber re-signed Massa for the 2004 season. In 2004, Massa scored 12 of Sauber's 34 points, with his best result being a fourth place finish at the Belgian Grand Prix. His teammate, Giancarlo Fisichella, scored the team's other 22 points. In 2005, Massa remained with Sauber. Although he only scored 11 points, Massa outpaced his teammate Jacques Villeneuve through most of the season, and beat him in the drivers' championship. In 2006, Massa re-joined Ferrari as a race-driver, alongside Michael Schumacher.

Ferrari (2006-Present)

Massa celebrating victory at the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix.

2006

Massa got a good start 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. However, in Bahrain, in both Saturday practice and the race, Massa seemed to resume his tendency to spin, narrowly missing eventual winner Fernando Alonso in the race. He kept up his reputation as being a bit on the wild side at the Australian GP when he crashed his Ferrari in qualifying, and then collided with Christian Klien and Nico Rosberg at the first corner of the race. However, 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 achieved four more podium finishes in 2006, in the USA, France and Germany and took his first F1 pole position and his first F1 win at the 2006 Turkish Grand Prix, at the Istanbul Park circuit. His future position at Ferrari was secured when Michael Schumacher announced on 10 September 2006, that he would retire from F1 at the end of the 2006 season. On October 22, Massa won his home grand prix at the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix, marking the first time a Brazilian driver had won at Interlagos since Ayrton Senna in 1993. The Brazilian eventually finished the season third with 80 points, behind world champion Fernando Alonso and Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher.

2007

Massa driving for Ferrari at the 2007 British Grand Prix.

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 10-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 2007 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.

2008

Massa endured a terrible first race weekend of his third year at Ferrari. The team, surprisingly, looked off the pace as Massa qualified fourth and his race was even less successful, spinning off at the first corner of the first lap, on lap 26 he collided with David Coulthard and eventually retired due to engine failure.

Things brightened up in Malaysia as he qualified on pole, half a second clear of Räikkönen in P2, but the race itself didn't go as well. Massa led from pole in the first 16 laps but was jumped by Räikkönen in the pitstops. He was still in contention for the victory battle and was chasing Räikkönen until he spun off on lap 31 while in second and retired.

Massa went into Bahrain (where he won in 2007) with no points. He dominated the weekend, but Robert Kubica beat him down to second in qualifying. In the start, Massa beat Kubica even before the first corner. Räikkönen soon got up to second but he could not do a repeat of Malaysia. Massa was quicker and easily won by 3 seconds to open up his account.

In Spain, Massa qualified third behind Räikkönen and Fernando Alonso. He passed Alonso at the start and got up to second behind Räikkönen. He stayed on his teammate's shadow for the whole race, but there was no way he could pass or get ahead in the stops. Massa had to settle for second.

Massa took pole position at the next round which was in Turkey. He led from the start, and maintained it during the round of pitsops, but was passed by Lewis Hamilton's three-stopping McLaren at the start of the second stint. Hamilton pulled away, but he did not have the pace to take the lead that was needed to make his third stop and still come out ahead of Massa. Massa was a full 7 seconds up the road by then and took his second win of the season, and his third consecutive at the circuit.

At Monaco Massa qualified on pole, to his surprise (he had mentioned prior to the weekend that he did not like the circuit) and built up a 15-second lead over Räikkönen in the rain, before that advantage was wiped out by the safety car. Soon Räikkönen was out of contention with a drive-through penalty. After the safety car went, Massa again started pulling away from Robert Kubica, but he ran up an escape road and lost the lead. Massa did jump Kubica in the pitstops but Lewis Hamilton's one-stopping McLaren was by now way ahead of both of them. During the pitstops, Massa was fueled to the end of the race and was struggling, holding Kubica up. The track dried out and Massa had to pit for dries while Kubica took his second fuel stop at the same time and jumped him. Massa thus finished third behind Hamilton and Kubica.

Massa driving for Ferrari at the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix.

In the Canadian Grand Prix, with Massa having his season worst qualifying in 6th place. There was a safety car due to an incident involving Adrian Sutil. All drivers pitted, but Massa had to pit twice due to a delay with his fuel rig, which put him down in 17th. Massa then staged a brave fightback, charging back up to fifth place by the end of the race. With chief title rivals Hamilton and Räikkönen taking each other out after colling in the pitlane, this was not a bad race.

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 problem in his exhaust 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 the 1993 Formula One season.

In the British Grand Prix, things made a turn for the worse as Massa qualified way down in ninth. In the wet race, things were even worse and he finished 13th, dead last. This result was his lowest finish since 2005 when he finished 14th on two occasions for Sauber.

Massa had a harrowing defeat at the 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix where he started third. He overtook 2nd place starter Heikki Kovalainen and pole sitter Lewis Hamilton on the main straight of the starting grid. He had an enormous lock-up of both his front tires but nevertheless overtook both McLarens with ease. He led for the majority of the race and seemed to have victory in the bag but with 3 laps remaining, an engine failure in the Ferrari took place and he failed to finish.

Massa won the 2008 European Grand Prix at Valencia, Spain. He started in pole position and took the chequered flag comfortably. However, he was released from his first pitstop at the same time Adrian Sutil was passing by and they almost touched, with Massa letting Sutil go ahead. After the race, the stewards decided to fine Massa €10,000, but his victory stood. He won his 10th Grand Prix in the 2008 Belgian Grand Prix, after Lewis Hamilton who crossed the line in front of Massa was hit with a 25 second penalty by the stewards after the race, for cutting the Bus Stop Chicane during his tussle with Räikkönen on Lap 42 of the race.

Massa took pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix, beating Hamilton's best time by six tenths of a second during the last moments of the qualifying session. During the race, Massa, after being given the green light by his team, left his first fuel stop with the refuelling rig still attached to his car. This resulted in a lengthy delay caused by the difficulty of removing the hose. He was later then given a drive-through penalty for an unsafe release into the pitlane. His race ruined, he finished out of the points.

At the Japanese Grand Prix Massa struggled in qualifying, having to settle for 5th on the grid. Meanwhile, Hamilton, his rival for the Championship, took pole position. In the race he collided with Hamilton by running across the grass after overshooting a chicane, receiving a drive-through penalty and ultimately finishing 7th, after a controversial penalty was issued to Sébastien Bourdais, who was adjudged by the stewards to have caused a collision with Massa while exiting the pitlane.

At the 2008 Chinese Grand Prix the following week Massa and teammate Räikkönen, despite strong performances at Fuji, struggled for pace the entire weekend, a situation which Domenicali (Ferrari team principal) could not explain. Disappointed with his performance in practice he managed to qualify 3rd after the behind other Ferrari and title rival Hamilton, but in front of Fernando Alonso. Following the pattern of the weekend Massa struggled to keep up with Hamilton, who raced away and maintained a comfortable margin of him. Whilst he eventually found some speed after the graining period on the medium compound tyres , he was unable to catch Hamilton. As Räikkönen yielded second place to keep Massa's title hopes alive, Hamilton pulled his lead out to 7 in the Drivers championship. 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)

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team Name	Races	Poles	Wins	Points	Final Placing
1998	Formula Chevrolet Brazil	?	?	?	?	?	5th
1999	Formula Chevrolet Brazil	?	10	?	3	?	1st
2000	Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup	Cram Competition	9	?	3	140	1st
	Formula Renault 2000 Italy	Cram Competition	8	4	4	147	1st
2001	Euro Formula 3000	Draco Junior Team	8	6	6	60	1st
	European Supertouring Championship	Team Nordauto	4	0	0	71	23rd
2002	Formula One	Sauber	16	0	0	4	13th
2003	Formula One	Ferrari	Test driver
2004	Formula One	Sauber	18	0	0	12	12th
2005	Formula One	Sauber	19	0	0	11	13th
2006	Formula One	Ferrari	18	3	2	80	3rd
2007	Formula One	Ferrari	17	6	3	94	4th
2008	Formula One	Ferrari	17	6	6	97	2nd

Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	WDC	Points
2002	Sauber Petronas	Sauber C21	Petronas 02A 3.0 V10	AUS Ret	MAL 6	BRA Ret	SMR 8	ESP 5	AUT Ret	MON Ret	CAN 9	EUR 6	GBR 9	FRA Ret	GER 7	HUN 7	BEL Ret	ITA Ret	USA	JPN Ret			13th	4
2004	Sauber Petronas	Sauber C23	Petronas 04A 3.0 V10	AUS Ret	MAL 8	BHR 12	SMR 10	ESP 9	MON 5	EUR 9	CAN Ret	USA Ret	FRA 13	GBR 9	GER 13	HUN Ret	BEL 4	ITA 12	CHN 8	JPN 9	BRA 8		12th	12
2005	Sauber Petronas	Sauber C24	Petronas 05A 3.0 V10	AUS 10	MAL 10	BHR 7	SMR 10	ESP 11	MON 9	EUR 14	CAN 4	USA DNS	FRA Ret	GBR 10	GER 8	HUN 14	TUR Ret	ITA 9	BEL 10	BRA 11	JPN 10	CHN 6	13th	11
2006	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	Ferrari 248 F1	Ferrari 056 2.4 V8	BHR 9	MAL 5	AUS Ret	SMR 4	EUR 3	ESP 4	MON 9	GBR 5	CAN 6	USA 2	FRA 3	GER 2	HUN 7	TUR 1	ITA 9	CHN Ret	JPN 2	BRA 1		3rd	80
2007	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	Ferrari F2007	Ferrari 056 2.4 V8	AUS 6	MAL 5	BHR 1	ESP 1	MON 3	CAN DSQ	USA 3	FRA 2	GBR 5	EUR 2	HUN 13	TUR 1	ITA Ret	BEL 2	JPN 6	CHN 3	BRA 2			4th	94
2008	Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro	Ferrari F2008	Ferrari 056 2.4 V8	AUS Ret	MAL Ret	BHR 1	ESP 2	TUR 1	MON 3	CAN 5	FRA 1	GBR 13	GER 3	HUN 17	EUR 1	BEL 1	ITA 6	SIN 13	JPN 7	CHN 2	BRA 1		2nd	97

Personal life

Felipe Massa married Anna Rafaela Bassi on November 30, 2007, in São Paulo, Brazil.

Massa is a friend of Swiss watchmaker Richard Mille, who has dedicated several models of his watches to him (RM-005FM, RM-011).

Nicolas Todt, son of Ferrari's past team principal Jean Todt, is Massa's manager.

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 holds a charity kart race, Desafio International das Estrelas (International Challenge of the Stars) every year since 2005. Notably, many of active Brazilian top level drivers have competed in the event, i.e. all Brazilian Formula One drivers after Rubens Barrichello including Nelson Piquet Jr., Brazilian drivers who had competed in the American open wheel races, such as Tony Kanaan, Felipe Giaffone, Vitor Meira, Roberto Moreno and Gil de Ferran, and Stock Car Brasil champion Cacá Bueno. Beside them, Alex Barros, a Brazilian motorcycle rider also competed in the kart race. Excluding the Brazilians, Michael Schumacher and Luca Badoer have participated in 2007. The Formula One broadcaster in Brazil, TV Globo broadcasts the event with Galvão Bueno and Reginaldo Leme like a Formula One race.

See also

• Famous Brazilians
• List of Brazilians in sport

External links

• The official website for Felipe Massa
• Felipe Massa profile and statistics
• Felipe Massa statistics