A glance at Felipe Massa’s career with Ferrari until 2012 – Formula 1
Felipe Massa first joined Ferrari back in 2003 as a test driver, but took a convincing start as a full-time race driver at the Scarlet team in the 2006 Formula 1 season.
Massa drove alongside Michael Schumacher in 2006 and performed tremendously well throughout the year. He secured third place finish in the drivers’ championship with 80 points. Moreover, he stood ahead of his main rival, Giancarlo Fisichella of Renault and
behind Schumacher who lost the championship to Fernando Alonso.
In 2007, he delivered some remarkable performances and managed to secure fourth place finish in the drivers’ standings after scoring 94 points. Furthermore, he stood behind, Alonso and ahead of BMW drivers, Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica.
The Brazilian driver strike back amazingly well in 2008 and performed with inspiring consistency throughout the season. He was considered as the strongest title contender in the season, but unfortunately lost the championship to Lewis Hamilton of McLaren
by only one point.
In 2009, he had the toughest season of his career so far as he faced immense reliability issue. Moreover, he had a life threatening accident in the Hungarian GP due to which his skull was fractured. He missed the remainder of the season and secured 11th
place finish in the standings. Besides, he remained ahead of Heikki Kovalainen of McLaren and behind Timo Glock of Toyota.
In 2010, he made a convincing come back after recovering from severe head injury and secured 6th place finish in the drivers’ standings with 144 points. Additionally, he remained ahead of Nico Rosberg of Mercedes and behind McLaren pair of drivers,
Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton.
He kept his consistency in 2011 and again secured 6th place finish in the drivers’ championship with 118 points. Besides, he stood ahead of Rosberg and behind Hamilton.
In 2012, he had a very struggling start and faced immense criticism over his poor form. Furthermore, he was also surrounded by many speculations that he might get replaced by any other driver at Ferrari for 2013. However, the team principal, Stefano Domenicali
completely discharged all the speculations and asserted that they would always support their driver in any kind of circumstances.
Nevertheless, he got his pace back after the Mugello test and performed amazingly well with a competent car. He also supported his teammate, Alonso in a couple of races and secured 7th position in overall drivers’ championship with 122 points.
Moreover, he stood behind Mark Webber of Red Bull and ahead of Romain Grosjean of Lotus.
It will be important to note that the 31-year-old has successfully extended his contract with Ferrari for the next season and is positively looking forward to perform well for his team in the future.
“This has been a very difficult year for me, especially at the start, when we couldn't find the right way to move forward with our car,” Massa said at Ferrari's Christmas celebrations.
“The second part was very different: I was more competitive and, thanks to strength I got from all of you, I managed to get back to way I was before,” he said. “Now I am more motivated than ever: the second part of season was like training session for next
year. In 2013, I really want to come back to this event to celebrate something even better together with all of you!”
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