Felipe Massa competed in 15 seasons of Formula One between 2002 and 2017, where he scored 11 Grand Prix victories, 41 podiums and finished as championship runner-up in 2008 by one point.
183 Facts About Felipe Massa
2.
Felipe Massa currently competes full-time in the Brazilian Stock Car Pro Series, driving the No 19 Chevrolet Cruze for Lubrax Podium.
3.
Felipe Massa moved into Formula Chevrolet and claimed the championship.
4.
Felipe Massa moved into Italian Formula Renault in 2000 and won the title along with the European championship.
5.
Felipe Massa went into Euro Formula 3000 taking the championship in 2001.
6.
Felipe Massa started his Formula One career with Sauber before joining Scuderia Ferrari as a test driver for 2003.
7.
Felipe Massa returned to Sauber for 2004 and 2005 before rejoining Ferrari where he won two races in 2006 including his home Grand Prix becoming the first Brazilian since Ayrton Senna to win the Brazilian Grand Prix.
8.
Felipe Massa won three races in 2007, finishing 4th in the Drivers' Championship.
9.
Felipe Massa finished second in the 2008 Drivers' World Championship after a long title battle with Lewis Hamilton, winning six races to Hamilton's five.
10.
Felipe Massa was forced to miss the rest of the season but returned in 2010 during which he briefly led the championship.
11.
Felipe Massa suffered a dip in form in 2011 scoring no podiums but consistently scoring points.
12.
Felipe Massa contributed to Ferrari's Constructors' Championships in 2007 and 2008 and was under contract to race for the team until the end of the 2013 season.
13.
Felipe Massa replaced Pastor Maldonado alongside Valtteri Bottas at Williams from 2014.
14.
Felipe Massa announced that he would retire from Formula One at the end of the 2016 season.
15.
Felipe Massa subsequently postponed his retirement, returning to Williams to partner rookie Lance Stroll for the 2017 season.
16.
On 4 November 2017, Felipe Massa confirmed that he would be retiring from Formula One at the end of the 2017 season.
17.
Felipe Massa then joined the 2021 season of the Stock Car Brasil series.
18.
Felipe Massa was born in Sao Paulo and grew up in Botucatu, in Sao Paulo countryside.
19.
Felipe Massa's grandparents come from the town of Cerignola, in the province of Foggia, Italy.
20.
Felipe Massa began karting when he was 8 years old, finishing fourth in his first season.
21.
Felipe Massa continued in national and international championships for 7 years, and in 1998 moved into Formula Chevrolet, finishing the Brazilian championship in fifth place.
22.
In 2000, Felipe Massa moved to Europe to compete in the Italian Formula Renault series, winning both the Italian and the European Formula Renault championships that year.
23.
Felipe Massa 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.
24.
Felipe Massa was then offered a Formula 1 test with the Sauber team, who signed him for 2002.
25.
Felipe Massa drove for Alfa Romeo in the European Touring Car Championship as a guest driver.
26.
Felipe Massa proved he was a competitive driver, but made several mistakes, including spinning off the track several times.
27.
Nevertheless, Felipe 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.
28.
Felipe Massa returned to the driver's seat for the Japanese Grand Prix, but Sauber confirmed that Frentzen would partner Heidfeld in 2003, leaving Felipe Massa without a race seat.
29.
Felipe Massa was then released and replaced by his former teammate Heidfeld and joined Ferrari to partner Michael Schumacher.
30.
In Bahrain in both Saturday practice and the race, Felipe Massa spun, narrowly missing Fernando Alonso, the eventual winner of the race.
31.
Felipe Massa set the fastest lap at Barcelona in 2006.
32.
Felipe 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.
33.
On 22 October, Felipe 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.
34.
Felipe Massa finished the season third with 80 points, behind world champion Alonso and Ferrari teammate Schumacher.
35.
Felipe Massa topped the time sheets on five occasions and set the fastest lap for four circuits during the 2007 pre-season testing.
36.
Felipe Massa started the race from 22nd position due to these problems and a 10-grid-slot penalty for the engine change.
37.
Felipe Massa employed a one pitstop strategy for the race and finished in sixth place.
38.
Felipe 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.
39.
Felipe 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.
40.
The race stewards at the Canadian Grand Prix disqualified Felipe Massa for leaving the pit lane while the red light was showing.
41.
Felipe Massa led much of the Brazilian Grand Prix, until yielding the lead to teammate Kimi Raikkonen, thus securing Raikkonen's world championship title.
42.
Felipe Massa finished the 2007 season ranked fourth in the drivers' standing with 94 points.
43.
In October 2007, Felipe Massa extended his contract with Ferrari to the end of 2010.
44.
Felipe Massa led from pole for the first 16 laps but was jumped by Raikkonen in the pitstops.
45.
Felipe Massa was still in contention for the victory battle and was chasing Raikkonen until he spun off and retired on lap 31 while in second.
46.
Felipe Massa went into the Bahrain Grand Prix with no points.
47.
Felipe Massa was quicker and won by 3 seconds to score his first points of the season.
48.
Felipe Massa passed Alonso at the start and got up to second behind Raikkonen.
49.
Felipe Massa stayed on his teammate's tail for the whole race, but was unable to pass or get ahead in the stops.
50.
Felipe Massa took pole position at the next round at Turkey.
51.
Felipe Massa led from the start, and maintained the lead during the round of pit stops, but was passed by Lewis Hamilton's three-stopping McLaren at the start of the second stint.
52.
Felipe Massa was seven seconds up the road by then and took his second win of the season, and his third consecutive at the circuit.
53.
Felipe Massa did jump Kubica in the pitstops, but Lewis Hamilton's one-stopping McLaren was by now ahead of both of them.
54.
The track dried out and Felipe Massa had to pit for slick tyres while Kubica took his second fuel stop at the same time and jumped him.
55.
All drivers pitted, but Felipe Massa had to pit twice due to a delay with his fuel rig, which put him down to 17th.
56.
Felipe Massa then staged a fightback, charging back up to fifth place by the end of the race.
57.
Felipe Massa stayed some 3 to 4 seconds behind his teammate for the first half of the race.
58.
However, Raikkonen had a developing problem in his exhaust system, which allowed Felipe Massa to overtake him and win the race.
59.
Felipe Massa was the first Brazilian to lead the championship since Ayrton Senna in 1993.
60.
Felipe Massa had his season's worst qualifying, starting in 9th.
61.
Felipe Massa stayed second and was set to finish there until a crash involving Timo Glock brought out the safety car.
62.
However, when all the stops were over, Felipe Massa was behind Nelson Piquet Jr.
63.
At the Hungarian Grand Prix, the McLarens locked out the front row, and the best Felipe Massa could get was third.
64.
However, at the start itself, Felipe Massa passed both Heikki Kovalainen and pole sitter Hamilton on the run down to the first corner.
65.
Felipe Massa had the race in control from that point, and built up a five-second lead over Hamilton.
66.
When Hamilton suffered a puncture, Felipe Massa was left 20 seconds in front, but with three laps remaining he suffered an engine failure and retired.
67.
Felipe Massa took pole position comfortably at this new circuit, and led from the start.
68.
Felipe Massa lost a place at the start to Raikkonen and stayed in third until lap 42 of 44 when Hamilton passed Raikkonen for the lead, just after cutting a chicane.
69.
Hamilton crossed the line first, but was penalised 25 seconds by the stewards after the race for cutting the chicane, and so the win went to Felipe Massa putting him only two points behind Hamilton.
70.
Felipe Massa finished there, but as Hamilton only finished seventh, he narrowed Hamilton's championship lead to a single point.
71.
Felipe Massa took pole position for what was the first ever F1 night race and inaugural Singapore Grand Prix, beating Hamilton by six-tenths of a second.
72.
Felipe Massa maintained the lead at the start and after 14 laps, was over 5 seconds ahead of Hamilton.
73.
Felipe Massa left with the fuel rig attached and so had to stop at the end of the pitlane.
74.
The mechanics ran the length of the pitlane and finally removed the rig, but Felipe Massa was now last.
75.
Felipe Massa was then given a drive-through penalty for an unsafe release, and was 15 seconds behind the rest of the field.
76.
Felipe Massa's race ruined, he finished 13th and Hamilton who finished third was now seven points ahead of him.
77.
The result was a collision, with Hamilton spinning down to the back, and Felipe Massa dropping down to seventh.
78.
Felipe Massa was given a drive-through penalty for the incident, and found himself in 14th.
79.
Felipe Massa made a charge up the order, setting the fastest lap on his way to getting 8th and one point.
80.
Felipe 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"; in the previous two years he had taken a win and a second place at Interlagos.
81.
Felipe Massa maintained the lead, and after 10 laps everyone had to change to slicks on a drying track.
82.
Felipe Massa dominated the rest of the race, set the fastest lap and won by 13 seconds even though everyone had to change to intermediates after a late rain shower.
83.
Felipe Massa was lying fourth for most of the race until the late shower, behind Massa, Alonso and Raikkonen.
84.
Felipe Massa secured the win, while Hamilton was still sixth as he came up to the second-to-last corner.
85.
Felipe Massa then passed Glock who had just been overtaken by Vettel and who was struggling for grip on his dry tyres, and so moved back into fifth place.
86.
In Malaysia, an error of judgement by Ferrari meant that Felipe Massa failed to make it through the first session of qualifying.
87.
However, this was not the case, and Felipe Massa subsequently ended up in 16th for the race.
88.
Felipe Massa failed to score in the next two races, retiring from the Chinese Grand Prix with electrical problems, and finishing well outside of the point scoring positions in 14th in Bahrain, due to a KERS problem and damaging his car's front-wing on the first lap.
89.
Felipe Massa managed to maintain third position for a majority of the race before a computer issue showed the car as having less fuel than it should have, forcing him to conserve fuel in the final 10 laps, allowing Vettel and Alonso to cruise past, only for him to realise that the car had enough fuel for him not to need to conserve, after the race.
90.
Monaco was another step in terms of improvement for the car as Felipe Massa finished fourth in the race, with fastest race lap.
91.
Felipe Massa was airlifted to the AEK hospital in Budapest, where he underwent surgery in the area surrounding his left eye.
92.
Felipe Massa's condition was initially described as "life-threatening but stable", but improved rapidly.
93.
Felipe Massa was discharged from hospital the following week and returned to Brazil.
94.
Felipe Massa waved the chequered flag at the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix.
95.
Felipe Massa started the 2010 season with a second-place qualifying place, and a second-place finish in Bahrain behind teammate Fernando Alonso, despite having to save fuel in the last 22 laps.
96.
At the Australian Grand Prix, Felipe Massa was appointed a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association.
97.
Felipe Massa finished third, largely managing to steer clear of the chaos.
98.
In Monaco, Felipe Massa was very quick during practice and qualified fourth.
99.
Felipe Massa got off to a great start and got alongside Robert Kubica, but had to yield the racing line at the first corner and finished the race in fourth, which promoted him to fifth in the championship with 61 points.
100.
Felipe Massa described the race as "boring"; he spent it battling with the Renaults of Kubica and Vitaly Petrov for the minor points positions.
101.
Felipe Massa ended up in a disappointing fifteenth, as the last car on the lead lap.
102.
At the 2010 German Grand Prix Ferrari were investigated for team orders as Felipe Massa took the race lead early, ahead of Fernando Alonso in second and Sebastian Vettel close behind in third.
103.
Shortly afterwards, on lap 49, Felipe Massa allowed Alonso to take the lead, and consequently to win the race.
104.
Felipe Massa finished 4th in Hungary and Belgium and third in Italy.
105.
Felipe Massa collided with Vitantonio Liuzzi on the first lap of the Japanese Grand Prix but finished third in Korea.
106.
Felipe Massa finished a disappointing 15th in Brazil, and tenth in Abu Dhabi.
107.
Felipe Massa ended the season ranked sixth in the Drivers' Championship.
108.
In June, Felipe Massa agreed to a contract extension until the end of the 2012 season.
109.
Felipe Massa remained with Scuderia Ferrari in 2011, and again was partnered with Fernando Alonso.
110.
At the Australian Grand Prix, Felipe Massa endured a poor start to the season at what has traditionally been his bogey race.
111.
Qualifying eighth, over 0.6 seconds behind teammate Alonso, Felipe Massa managed to get ahead of Alonso and several other drivers at the start and ran in fifth place for a while, much to the frustration of Jenson Button, who had a much quicker car but was unable to pass him.
112.
Felipe Massa again made a fine start to the race and ran ahead of Alonso until his first pit-stop.
113.
In China, Felipe Massa improved again; at one point looking like challenging for the race win, before settling for sixth as Ferrari's two-stop strategy did not suit the conditions.
114.
Felipe Massa finished 11th in Turkey after a slow pit stop, and retired in Spain due to a gearbox fault.
115.
In Monaco, Felipe Massa made contact with Lewis Hamilton at the hairpin on lap 32, and crashed in the tunnel a few corners later.
116.
Felipe Massa took another sixth-place finish at the Italian Grand Prix, after he was spun round by Webber on lap five.
117.
Felipe Massa retired later after hitting a kerb too hard, the same fate which ended his qualifying session.
118.
Felipe Massa rounded off the year with two fifth-place finishes in Abu Dhabi and Brazil.
119.
Felipe Massa gained six places on the first lap, running as high as eighth in the early stages of the race, but suffered badly from tyre degradation and fell down the order before retiring from the race after a collision with Williams driver Bruno Senna; both drivers later agreed that it was a racing incident.
120.
Felipe Massa was thirteenth at the Chinese Grand Prix before he scored his first points of the season with ninth at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
121.
In Spain, Felipe Massa started sixteenth and finished fifteenth whilst teammate Alonso started and finished second, he had a drive-through for ignoring yellow flags.
122.
Felipe Massa finished 6th in Monaco, and tenth in Canada, after spinning in the early stages of the race.
123.
Felipe Massa finished 16th in Valencia, after Kobayashi made contact with him at the restart.
124.
Felipe Massa finished 12th in Hockenheim, where he hit Daniel Ricciardo on the first lap and as a result, removed his own front wing.
125.
Felipe Massa took his best qualifying result of the season so far and got third place grid position at Monza.
126.
Felipe Massa 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.
127.
Felipe Massa maintained 6th position after the first corner, and overtook Raikkonen on the first lap.
128.
Felipe Massa 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.
129.
On 16 October 2012, Felipe Massa signed a 1-year contract with Ferrari.
130.
Felipe Massa ran as high as 7th until he spun when fighting with Mark Webber, but drove well and worked his way up to 7th again.
131.
At the start of the race Felipe 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.
132.
Felipe Massa started his season strongly with the new F138 at the Australian Grand Prix.
133.
Felipe Massa was able to stay very competitive, especially during the early laps of the race but finished the race in fourth place, two places behind Alonso.
134.
At the following race in Malaysia, Felipe Massa started on the front row of the grid, out-qualifying Alonso for the fourth time in a row.
135.
Felipe Massa had a poor start and bad first stint on the intermediate tyres resulting him falling down the order, but as the track dried out, he recovered places on the slick tyres and finished fifth.
136.
Felipe Massa was the only car in Q3 to qualify on the hard tyres indicating he was on a different strategy.
137.
In Spain, Felipe Massa received a three-place grid penalty for blocking Mark Webber in qualifying, and started 9th.
138.
Felipe Massa made an excellent start, coming up to 6th, and then leapfrogged more cars during the pitstops, eventually finishing 3rd.
139.
In Monaco Felipe Massa suffered a heavy crash during 3rd Practice on Saturday into St Devote corner.
140.
Felipe Massa lost control of the car and bounced off the wall ending up with a face on crash into the tyre wall ahead.
141.
Felipe Massa was unhurt by the accident but the car was badly damaged and Massa was unable to take part in Qualifying later in the day.
142.
Felipe Massa scored an 8th place in Canada, and a 6th place in Britain.
143.
In Belgium Felipe 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 Felipe 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.
144.
Felipe Massa then jumped Red Bull's Mark Webber and Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg who qualified in a brilliant 3rd when the best he had managed all season was 10th in a slow car.
145.
Felipe 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.
146.
On 10 September 2013, Felipe Massa confirmed that he would be leaving Ferrari at the end of the season on Instagram and Twitter.
147.
Felipe Massa suffered an unlucky start to his campaign in Australia, when he retired after being hit hard by Kamui Kobayashi's Caterham.
148.
On 9 November 2014 Felipe 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.
149.
Felipe 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.
150.
Felipe Massa 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.
151.
In qualifying, Felipe Massa achieved sixth position, which he maintained for the race, after some tyre issues in the first stint.
152.
In Singapore, Felipe Massa was running in eighth position until the first round of pitstops.
153.
On lap 13 and after a slow pitstop, Felipe Massa exited the pit lane and collided with Force India's driver Nico Hulkenberg.
154.
Felipe Massa suffered from gearbox problems and retired on lap 30.
155.
Felipe Massa finished the season in sixth place in the drivers' standings, achieving two podiums in Austria and in Italy.
156.
The strategy did not work out, and Felipe Massa finished the race in eighth, after being overtaken on the last lap by Red Bull Racing driver Daniil Kvyat.
157.
At round 5 of the season, the Spanish Grand Prix, Felipe 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.
158.
On Saturday he qualified in P14, but in a race that begun in wet conditions, Felipe 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.
159.
Felipe Massa had to run the remainder of the weekend missing some parts after the crash in free practice one.
160.
One week later, at the European Grand Prix, the first Formula One race to be held in Azerbaijan, Felipe Massa struggled during the practice sessions, but managed to qualify sixth.
161.
At the next race, the British Grand Prix, Felipe Massa started outside the top 10.
162.
Felipe Massa's race was compromised even before the start, as torrential rain hit the circuit.
163.
The Williams car historically did not suit the wet weather conditions, and despite his infallible drive in those treacherous mixed conditions, Felipe Massa finished in eleventh, just outside the points.
164.
Felipe Massa encountered steering rack issues on the way to the grid, with the steering wheel rack being too light on one side and too heavy on the other.
165.
The issue was improved to a degree that Felipe Massa was able to race the car, but he was extremely compromised.
166.
On 1 September 2016, Felipe Massa announced that he would retire from Formula One at the end of the season.
167.
In qualifying, Felipe Massa was caught by yellow flags, caused by Romain Grosjean and Jenson Button.
168.
Felipe Massa finished in P12, but he was promoted to P11 after Sergio Perez was penalised for improving his time in Q2 under yellow flag conditions.
169.
Felipe Massa suffered a throttle issue, leaving him stranded on the grid as the formation lap started.
170.
Felipe Massa was then down in 19th but drove a strong race to fight back to 13th at the finish.
171.
Felipe Massa was able to maintain track position and finish the race in seventh, ahead of Sergio Perez.
172.
Felipe Massa ran in ninth for the majority of the race on the medium tyre, holding off a chasing Perez who had newer medium tyres and DRS for much of the race.
173.
On 16 January 2017, Felipe Massa rejoined Williams after Valtteri Bottas signed with Mercedes.
174.
Felipe Massa's race was short lived, as he was taken out by a spinning Carlos Sainz Jr.
175.
Felipe Massa showed good pace throughout the race and managed to climb up to third passing both Kimi Raikkonen and Sergio Perez 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.
176.
Felipe Massa recovered well at the next two races in Austria and Britain to finish both races in the points with a 9th and 10th-place finish respectively.
177.
Poor strategy calls in Singapore left Felipe Massa languishing in 11th place by the finish.
178.
One month after his retirement from Formula E, Felipe Massa participated in the Porsche GT3 Cup Brasil endurance series, sharing a car with 2016 champion Lico Kaesemodel.
179.
Felipe Massa married Anna Raffaela Bassi on 30 November 2007, in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
180.
Felipe Massa is a friend of Swiss watchmaker Richard Mille, who has dedicated several models of his watches to him.
181.
Felipe Massa held a charity kart race, Desafio Internacional das Estrelas every year between 2005 and 2014.
182.
On 18 September 2012, Felipe 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.
183.
Felipe 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, in Ferrari early years until 2010, Felipe Massa's helmet featured a white ring surrounding the top.