Felipe Massa: Ferrari's Near Champion, a Hungarian Injury and a Long Fight for 2008

Felipe Massa is a former Brazilian driver whose Formula One career ran from 2002 to 2017. He finished as runner-up in the 2008 world championship with Ferrari, losing the title to Lewis Hamilton by a single point, and he took 11 Grand Prix victories over 15 seasons.

Massa built his reputation in junior formulae before a Sauber drive gave him a Formula One start. He later became a Ferrari regular and a home winner at Interlagos, then survived a serious helmet injury in 2009 and rebuilt his career at Williams before stepping away from the top level.

How did Felipe Massa get into Formula One?

Massa was born in Sao Paulo and grew up in Botucatu, where he started karting at eight. He moved into Formula Chevrolet in 1998 and won its Brazilian title the following year. In 2000 he moved to Europe, winning both the Italian and European Formula Renault championships, and in 2001 he took the Euro Formula 3000 title with Draco.

Sauber signed him for 2002 to partner Nick Heidfeld, and he made his debut at the Australian Grand Prix. His rookie year brought four points, and his best finish was fifth at the Spanish Grand Prix. A mid-season spell on the sidelines and a grid penalty at Monza added to the difficulty of a first season in the top category.

Sauber replaced him with Heinz-Harald Frentzen for 2003, and he spent that year as a test driver for Ferrari, which supplied Sauber's engines. He returned to the Swiss team for 2004 and, with 12 of the team's 34 points, showed he could score consistently. His top finish that year was fourth at Spa, in Belgium.

Six wins in 2008 left Felipe Massa one race from the title, and a single point decided it against him.

How did Massa's first Ferrari seasons go?

Ferrari signed Massa in 2005 to replace Rubens Barrichello, and he partnered Michael Schumacher from 2006. Early in the season he qualified second in Bahrain and came from 21st to fifth in Malaysia. He spun in Bahrain and crashed in qualifying in Australia, but he scored his first podium with third at the Nurburgring.

At the Turkish Grand Prix at Istanbul Park he took his first pole and his first win. A month later, on 22 October 2006, he won his home race at Interlagos, the first Brazilian driver to win there since Ayrton Senna in 1993. Massa ended 2006 third in the standings on 80 points, behind Alonso and Schumacher.

The 2007 season began with problems. He qualified on pole in Malaysia but was overtaken at the first corner and finished fifth. He then won in Bahrain, Spain and Turkey, and at his home race he finished second behind Kimi Raikkonen, who took the title. He ended 2007 fourth in the standings with 94 points.

How close did Massa come to the 2008 title?

Massa was in contention for the championship throughout 2008, and he took six wins across the season. He qualified on pole at Malaysia and led for 16 laps, but he spun out of the lead and retired on lap 31. The Bahrain race, where he had also won in 2007, restarted his season with a win by three seconds.

Turkey was a turning point. Massa took pole, led from the start and won by seven seconds, his second win of the year and his third in succession at the circuit. A third place at Monaco followed, and then a fightback from 17th at Canada took him to fifth. Two rivals failed to finish that day, and Massa drew level with Hamilton on points.

At the French Grand Prix he won from second on the grid after Raikkonen developed an exhaust problem. The result gave him the championship lead, and he became the first Brazilian to top the standings since Senna. He then won the European Grand Prix at Valencia, which was his 100th Grand Prix start.

Belgium and Italy kept the title race alive. At Spa Hamilton was penalised 25 seconds for cutting a chicane, which gave Massa the win, and in Italy a wet race left him sixth but narrowed the gap to a single point. In Singapore, where he took pole for the first night race, a fuel rig problem at his stop left him last and he finished 13th.

What happened at the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix?

Massa was seven points behind Hamilton going into the final race, so he needed to win and hope Hamilton finished outside the top five. He took pole at Interlagos and won by 13 seconds after rain and a late shower reshuffled the field. He set the fastest lap and celebrated the victory with his home crowd.

Hamilton, however, was fifth as the race neared its end, and then a mistake dropped him to sixth. He passed Timo Glock on the last corner to regain fifth, which gave him the title by one point. Massa's win had been enough only if Hamilton had finished sixth or lower, and the margin is still discussed among fans.

Massa's admirers praised his maturity. F1.com called him no longer the nearly man, and Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo praised his sportsmanship and character in defeat.

What happened at the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix?

On 25 July 2009, during the second round of qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix, a suspension spring fell from Rubens Barrichello's Brawn and struck Massa's helmet at about 162 mph (261 km/h). He crashed head-on into a tyre barrier, and although his helmet protected him, the impact was serious. He was airlifted to hospital in Budapest and underwent surgery near his left eye.

He was discharged the following week and returned to Brazil. Further tests showed that his skull needed a titanium plate for him to race again. Michael Schumacher was asked to take over his seat during recovery, but a neck injury from a motorcycle accident earlier that year prevented his comeback. Luca Badoer deputised for two races without scoring a point.

Ferrari announced in September 2009 that Giancarlo Fisichella would take the rest of the season. Massa underwent neurological examinations in Paris on 10 October, and Ferrari confirmed that he would drive a 2007 car to re-acclimatise to racing.

How did Massa's second spell at Ferrari unfold?

In 2010 he was back at Ferrari alongside Alonso, and he was briefly the championship leader after Malaysia. He finished second in Bahrain behind his teammate and took third in Australia. The next six races brought a series of mixed results, and in Germany he was told by his engineer that Alonso was faster.

He allowed Alonso to pass at the German Grand Prix, which led to an investigation into team orders. Ferrari denied any instruction was given, but it was fined $100,000 for breaking the Sporting Regulations. Massa finished the 2010 season sixth in the championship, with a third place in Korea among his best results.

The 2011 season brought several fifth and sixth places, including a result ahead of Alonso in Malaysia. He was involved in several incidents with Lewis Hamilton, including a collision at Singapore, and in Japan he publicly criticised Hamilton. In 2012 he finished second at Suzuka, a rostrum place not reached since Korea in 2010, and third at Brazil in front of his home crowd.

In 2013 Massa claimed his first podium of the year with third in Spain, which was one of few highlights that season. On 10 September 2013 he announced that he would leave Ferrari at the end of the season. Kimi Raikkonen was announced as his replacement the next day.

How did Massa's Williams years unfold?

Williams signed Massa for 2014, partnering Valtteri Bottas and replacing Pastor Maldonado. His first pole for Williams, and the first for him in six years, came at the Austrian Grand Prix that year, and he took his first podium for the team with third at Monza. A second podium followed at Brazil, and he finished second at Abu Dhabi after Rosberg's power unit failed.

In 2015 he took a third-place finish at the Austrian Grand Prix, his 40th podium of his career. He gained his second podium of the year at Monza, where the tifosi made it an emotional moment, and he finished the season sixth in the standings with points in most races. A stop-and-go penalty at Hungary was among the setbacks.

The 2016 season was harder, with a steady pattern of points finishes and bad luck. He finished sixth in China and fifth in Russia, but he lost points through retirements in Austria and Germany. Williams struggled in the wet, and Massa announced on 1 September 2016 that he would retire at the end of the year.

Why did Massa retire, and what came next?

Massa's retirement plan changed when Valtteri Bottas left Williams for Mercedes in the wake of Nico Rosberg's sudden retirement. Williams asked him back, and he rejoined the team in January 2017. He finished seventh in Brazil in his final home race and announced for a second time, on 4 November 2017, that he would stop at the end of the season.

His Formula One tally stood at 11 Grand Prix wins, 16 poles, 15 fastest laps and 41 podiums. Outside the sport he moved into Formula E, racing for Venturi from 2018 to 2020, and he raced full time in Brazil's Stock Car Pro Series from 2018 with the Lubrax Podium team.

Massa struggled in his early Stock Car seasons, but his form improved in 2023, and he took his first race win since 2008 at Autodromo Internacional de Cascavel. He also raced in the Porsche GT3 Cup Brasil and led the CIK karting commission from 2017 to 2022.

What was Massa's 2008 record season?

Massa's 2008 season is his best-known achievement. He won six Grands Prix, including the Turkish, French and European races, and he led the title race from the French Grand Prix onwards. His record that year was among the strongest of any driver in the season.

Massa claims a fault in Singapore that year cost him the title, and in 2023 he pursued legal action against the FIA over the outcome. The table below sets out his career season by season, to show how his results built and fell away.

What is Massa's legacy?

Massa is remembered as a driver who came closest to a title without winning one, and as a driver whose career was altered by a serious accident. He won 11 Grands Prix, including his home race at Interlagos, and he remains part of Ferrari's modern history.

In 2023 former Formula One chief executive Bernie Ecclestone said publicly that the Singapore race should have been cancelled under the rules, and that it would never have affected the championship standings. Massa then started legal action against the FIA and the commercial rights holder, with a trial scheduled for 2026. Those claims are his and remain to be tested in court.

Massa's later work in karting, endurance racing and the Stock Car series has kept him in the sport, and his name remains linked to a 2008 season that many fans still discuss.