F1: Top 5 Ferrari Driver Academy Graduates

#3 Felipe Massa

Felipe Massa's emotional home race in 2008 was as close as he came to being a world champion.

Felipe Massa's success was the inspiration behind the Ferrari driver academy, so the Brazilian driver has to be included on this list.

Massa had his F1 debut with Sauber in 2002, a popular route to become a Ferrari driver. After a decent debut campaign, he became Ferrari's test driver for '03, before being loaned back to the Swiss outfit for two years in 2004 and '05.

Those two campaigns were middling years for Massa, as he returned to drive for Sauber but couldn't quite reach the podium, although he did manage a couple of fourth places, no mean feat in that car.

2006 saw Massa drive for Ferrari alongside Schumacher, a year that would see him pick up his first win in Turkey and also win his home race at the final round in Brazil.

The following year brought Kimi Raikkonen to the team, and although Massa was solid, he couldn't quite manage a title challenge. That was until 2008, however...

Felipe managed a very impressive six wins that year as he duked it out with Lewis Hamilton for the title and appeared to have won it in Brazil until a last-corner overtake by the Brit saw the Hamilton win his first world championship.

That seemed to be unlucky, but it's a miracle that Massa continued in F1 after his horrifying crash with a spring in Hungary in 2009. That saw Massa sit on the sidelines for the rest of the year, but he returned in 2010 to partner Fernando Alonso at Ferrari.

In truth, Massa was never the same driver after his accident, never returning to the top step of the podium despite driving some winning cars. He remained at Ferrari until 2013, when he joined his final team in F1, Williams.

Massa had some good chances to win as the Grove outfit enjoyed a revival under new regulations but Mercedes were just too good.

In 2016, Massa announced his retirement but he surprisingly returned for 2017, as Williams needed an experienced driver to partner Lance Stroll. In all, 11 wins and 41 podiums is an excellent record by anybody's standards.