Felipe Massa

- Published on Dec 20th, 2010 by The Badger

Life Before F1
Short and sweet. Won Brazilian series Formula Chevrolet in 1999 (we'd never heard of it either) before packing his bags for Europe. There he took the Formula Renault Eurocup in 2000 and Euroseries 3000 in 2001, after which he was immediately hired by Peter Sauber. Perhaps understandable that, after such a short junior career, he struggled in year one, but a season as Ferrari's test driver in 2003 put him on the path to a top-line F1 career.

F1 Career
Brought in with little experience Massa struggled in his maiden F1 campaign, scoring a few points early on but eventually falling well short of the performance level of Nick Heidfeld. He subsequently lost his Sauber drive for 2003 but - crucially - was handed a Ferrari test contract. In the days when testing was unlimited (quite literally for Ferrari) this was a huge benefit.

He returned to Sauber for 2004 and was a much improved driver, enjoying particularly strong results in Monaco and Belgium. He may have been put in the shade by team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella that year but in 2005 he easily defeated former world champion Jacques Villeneuve. He was solid again that year and when a space opened up alongside Michael Schumacher at Ferrari he was the natural choice to fill it.

In his first two years at the Scuderia Massa played a supporting role. 2006 saw him bedding in at the team and learning from Schumacher, during which time he picked up two wins in Turkey and - rather emotionally - his home nation of Brazil. In 2007 new team-mate Kimi Raikkonen seized the initiative at the team, with a couple of early season wins for Massa and one later on in Turkey not enough to keep him in the title battle. As such it was the Finn - with a helping hand from Felipe, who handed him victory in Brazil - who took the crown.

But 2008 was Massa's year. After opening the campaign with two DNFs he won in Bahrain and added victories in Turkey (again!), France, Europe and Belgium to go to the final race of the year seven points off title leader Lewis Hamilton. Felipe drove the perfect race at the season closer in Brazil, and as he crossed the line as winner the title appeared to be his. His team and family had already begun celebrating Felipe's title when they saw Hamilton pass Timo Glock, thus just doing enough to be champion. Massa had come so close but the title had somehow evaded him.

2009 brought a bad car, but Felipe was again the superior Ferrari driver as Raikkonen's motivation seemed to wain. Massa scored the team's first podium of the season in Germany, but as the Ferrari's form appeared to be picking up disaster struck. A loose spring bounced from the track during qualifying for the Hungarian GP, striking Massa in the face. He was lucky to survive his inuries and forced to sit out the remainder of the season.

Massa showed no signs of suffering from his Hungarian injuries as he kicked off the 2010 season with back-to-back podiums in Bahrain and Australia. However he was soon suffering with his new team-mate, as Fernando Alonso stamped his authority on the team. The Spaniard's pass as the two Ferraris entered the pits in China laid a clear marker of who was boss, and when Felipe was asked to move over to let his team-mate win in Germany it was hardly the greatest shock. The Brazilian's motivation seemed to drop, and he ended the season sixth in the standings, the only driver from F1's top three teams not to win a race. Neverthless he remains with the Italian team for 2011, and if the new tyres are to his liking and he can get the jump on Alonso you can't rule out another world title push. We know he's capable of it.