A detailed profile of Ferrari F1 driver Felipe Massa – Formula 1
Felipe Massa is a 31 year old Brazilian Formula 1 driver who currently drives for the team Ferrari. The driver is the first ever Brazilian to win the Brazilian Grand Prix after Ayrton Senna who died at a young age.
Massa stepped into the world of racing at the age of 8 years old when he started Karting. He finished at fourth place in the championship during his very first season. He joined the Formula Chevrolet series in 1998 where he finished fifth in the championship
and won it in his next season. He started his F1 career in 2002 with the Sauber F1 team.
In his first F1 season, he made some mistakes that included spinning of the race circuit many times. However, he was successful at scoring four race points that season. For the next season, Sauber decided to replace Massa with another driver which left him
without any racing contract.
Massa decided to start working with their engine suppliers, Ferrari, and acquired experience in testing for the team. He joined the team as a driver again from 2004 to 2005 but then transferred to team Ferrari for the next season.
Massa was partnered by the historic German driver Michael Schumacher and had a good start to his first season with Ferrari. In his next season with the team, he was successful at achieving a fourth position with 94 points in the drivers’ championship. He
extended his contract with the team until the end of 2010. He could not start the 2008 season on a better note and later was involved in some racing incidents that got everybody thinking again that he was making the similar mistakes as he did when he first
joined the F1 community. He won the Brazilian GP that year and was the first one to do so since Senna in 1993.
His 2009 F1 season was marred by a serious accident at the Hungarian GP after which he suffered a skull fracture that was declared life threatening. The reason for his accident was when he was hit by a rear end spring that flew apart from Rubens Barrichello’s
Brawn when they were on a particularly high speed part of the circuit. A surgery was conducted around the area of his left eye and was released the following week to go back to Brazil. On a later occasion, he was required to get a titanium plate inserted into
his skull so as to make it safe for future F1 races. He returned to racing to complete the season in October. He was present to wave the chequered flag to start the Brazilian GP that season and was also blessed with a son at the end of 2009.
His contract with the team was once again extended and until the end of 2012 this time. As the 2011 F1 season began, Massa started to suffer from a performance drought. His performance was average in contrast to the performance brought by his teammate Fernando
Alonso. His drought continued into 2012 which ticked of the speculation that he will not be continuing with Ferrari but he levelled up his races enough to impress the team and was confirmed until the end of 2013.
In his ten year career in F1, he has not been able to win any championships but has secured 34 podium finishes and scored 677 race points. He has entered 171 Grands Prix.
Tags: