Felipe Massa: Remembering the Tifosi's team-player

Felipe Massa

When Felipe Massa slipped into the racing seat left empty by his country-mate Rubens Barrichello in 2006 most people expected him to be just the usual second driver that Ferrari always had, the guy in the background, the one who never got in the way of the main guy.

In the years that have followed Massa’s journey has been anything but that. Controversy has always been close to the Brazilian during his time with the scarlet brigade from Maranello, though it was usually not his fault. heartbreak and tragedy haven’t been far behind either and Massa has had a rather chunk of both.

So let’s take a look at the career of the young Brazilian from the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere – Sao Paulo – whose grandfather was an emigrant from Italy and his time a team that has come to define both Italy and F1 – Ferrari.

Massa’s journey at Ferrari actually began in 2003, after he was dropped by Sauber after his rookie season in 2002. Sauber’s engine suppliers – Ferrari- sensing an opportunity, snapped up the young 22 year old as the test driver for the Michael Schumacher led championship winning team. He returned to Sauber the next year and stayed with them till the end of the 2005 season, when Maranello called him yet again this time with a race seat.

2006 was Massa’s first year as a race driver for the Tifosi and the 26 year old showed quite a lot of promise qualifying second. In his next race at Malaysia, after qualifying a rather disappointing 21st, Massa blasted his way to 5th place coming in front of his team-mate Michael Schumacher. Massa, didn’t let a retirement in the next race in Australia deter him and in his fourth race for Ferrari he found himself on the third step of the podium. he appeared twice more on the podium(3rd and 2nd) before he finally got to that coveted top step in Turkey and followed that with a win at his home race at Interlagos as he closed out the season in 3rd to help Ferrari close out the constructors championship.

Schumacher seat was taken over by Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 and despite his quick pace at the start of the year in testing the first two races didn’t prove to be that good for Massa. however, he overcame his problems as he reeled out two wins in a row at Spain and Bahrain winning from pole before coming third in Monaco. Despite getting disqualified in Canada, he continued his consistent form reeling off six more podium finishes including a win at Turkey as he helped his team-mate to win the Drivers championship.

2008 though proved to be the most heartbreaking one for Massa. The first two races saw him retiring but he came back with a vengeance hammering out 6 wins as he got onto the podium 6 times. However, he lost the championship by a single point to Lewis Hamilton after the Brit passed Toyota’s Timo Glock on the last lap, to take 5th place and the championship.

2009 saw the beginning of Massa’s descent in form as he was involved in a horrendous accident when a spring from the rear suspension of Barrichello’s Brawn hit him in the helmet at high speed during qualifying at Hungary. the accident knocked him out of the rest of the season. He returned in 2010 and it seemed that all was well as he clocked of two podiums on the trot. He stepped onto the podium thrice more that season but still only managed the 6th spot in the championship as the team orders controversy at Germany overshadowed his performance on the track.

2011 saw him being quite consistent, however he never managed to get on the podium and finished 6th again. The season was more remembered for his rather forceful tussles with Lewis Hamilton which saw quite a few forceful words being exchanged between the duo. 2012 was another year of disappointments as the car was more like a Bronco than a prancing horse. However Massa still managed to get onto the podium twice again as he finished a disappointing 7th.

2013 has been another season of ups and downs and it was always clear that Massa was on his way out after Raikkonen started making noises about moving away from Lotus. He finished third in Spain but after the race at Monza he finally announced his departure from Maranello.

Many potions lie ahead for the racer from Sao Paulo, however, for his time in Italy he will be remembered for being a real Scuderia(team) player.

You can find a statistical overview here of his performances for Ferrari here