Massa

Born in São Paulo but raised in Botucatu, a city in the state’s interior, Felipe Massa grew up in a family of Italian descent. His grandparents originated from Cerignola, in the province of Foggia, Italy. He began karting at the age of eight, finishing fourth in his debut season. He spent seven years competing in national and international karting championships before stepping up to cars in 1998, joining the Brazilian Formula Chevrolet series and finishing fifth. The following season, he won three of ten races to claim the championship title. In 2000, Massa moved to Europe, where he dominated the Italian and European Formula Renault championships in the same year. Rather than moving to Formula Three, he chose the Euro Formula 3000 series for 2001, winning six of eight races to secure the championship with the Draco Racing team. His performances earned him a Formula One test with the Sauber team, who signed him for the 2002 season.

By the time Felipe Massa was 20 years old, he had already won four championships in four years, a trajectory that left little doubt about his next destination. After a fourth-place finish in his first karting season at age eight, he spent seven years climbing through national and international karting ranks. In 1998, he moved to Formula Chevrolet, finishing fifth in the Brazilian championship before winning the title the following year with three victories in ten races.

The decisive leap came in 2000, when Massa moved to Europe. He entered the Italian Formula Renault series and won both the Italian and European championships in a single season. Offered a path to Formula Three, he instead chose the Euro Formula 3000 for 2001, where his dominance was absolute: six wins from eight races secured the title with Draco Racing. That performance earned him a Formula 1 test with Sauber, who immediately signed him for the 2002 season. The path was clear, and at 21, Massa was set to become the next Brazilian hope in the sport’s top category.

Massa’s Formula One career began in 2002 with Sauber, a team he impressed during a test the previous year. After a single season, he spent 2003 as Ferrari’s test driver, a role that shaped his future. He returned to Sauber for 2004 and 2005, scoring his first podium at the 2005 Turkish Grand Prix, before being promoted to a race seat at Ferrari in 2006 alongside seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher. That year he won his first Grand Prix in Turkey and finished third in the drivers’ championship.

At Ferrari, Massa became a title contender. He won three races in 2007 and finished fourth in the standings. His peak came in 2008, when he took six victories, six poles, and pushed Lewis Hamilton to the final lap of the season. Massa lost the championship by a single point after Hamilton overtook Timo Glock on the last corner of the Brazilian Grand Prix. He remained with Ferrari through 2013, adding two more wins, then moved to Williams for three seasons, scoring a final podium in Austria in 2015. Over 15 seasons, Massa started 271 Grands Prix, won 11, stood on 41 podiums, and took 16 poles. He left F1 after 2017.

Maranello, 2006. That was the season Felipe Massa stopped being a promising Brazilian in a Ferrari and became a contender. In his third year with the Scuderia, he won two of the first nine races, including a dominant drive at the Turkish Grand Prix, and finished the season third in the championship, having scored seven podiums. But 2007 sharpened the edge. He won three races, took six poles, and finished fourth in a title fight decided by a single point. The real peak arrived in 2008. Over nineteen rounds, Massa won six Grands Prix—more than any driver that year—and scored ten podiums. He took six poles, led 414 laps, and carried the championship to the final corner of the final race in Brazil. He lost the title by one point to Lewis Hamilton. Over those three seasons, from 2006 to 2008, Massa won eleven of his career total of eleven Grands Prix, took fifteen of his sixteen poles, and stood on the podium twenty-six times. It was a concentrated burst of speed and consistency that few drivers sustain, and one that left him a single point short of history.

Massa married Anna Raffaela Bassi on 30 November 2007 in São Paulo; their son Felipinho was born exactly two years later. A devout Catholic, he supports São Paulo FC and, unusually for a Brazilian, also the Turkish club Fenerbahçe. “Zico was my childhood idol, Roberto Carlos is my best friend. I am a Fenerbahçe fan, because it is just like a Brazilian team,” he said in 2007. He is a close friend of watchmaker Richard Mille, who has created two dedicated watch models for him. Nicolas Todt, son of former Ferrari team principal Jean Todt, has long managed his career. Between 2005 and 2014, Massa organized the Desafio Internacional das Estrelas, a charity kart race that drew stars including Michael Schumacher, Jeff Gordon, and multiple Brazilian drivers. He served as president of the FIA’s Commission Internationale de Karting from 2017 until 2022, when he became head of the FIA Drivers’ Commission.

After retiring from Formula One at the end of 2017, Massa did not leave the cockpit for long. He spent two seasons in Formula E with Venturi Racing, scoring a podium at the 2019 Monaco e-Prix. Since 2021, he has competed full-time in Brazil’s Stock Car Pro Series, first for Lubrax Podium and later TMG Racing, finishing as runner-up in the 2024 championship. He also races in the LMP2 class of the IMSA SportsCar Championship for Riley. Away from driving, Massa served as president of the FIA’s Commission Internationale de Karting from 2017 until 2022, when he became president of the FIA Drivers’ Commission. In 2023, following public comments by former F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone, Massa launched legal action against the FIA and FOM challenging the outcome of the 2008 world championship, with a trial scheduled for 2026.

Since 2021, Massa has been back in a cockpit full-time, racing in Brazil’s Stock Car Pro Series. He joined the grid for the 2021 season with Lubrax Podium, moving to TMG Racing in 2024, where he finished as runner-up in the championship that same year. He also competes in the IMSA SportsCar Championship, driving in the LMP2 class for Riley. Away from the track, Massa serves as president of the FIA Drivers’ Commission, a role he assumed in 2022 that places him at the center of driver representation within the sport’s governing body. He resides in São Paulo.

Massa’s place in Formula One history is defined by a single point. That one-point margin to Lewis Hamilton in the 2008 drivers’ championship, decided on the final corner of the final race in Interlagos, remains the closest a Brazilian has come to the title since Ayrton Senna. But the outcome has been contested since March 2023, when former F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone stated that both he and then-FIA president Max Mosley knew of Renault’s deliberate manipulation of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix during the season and chose not to act. Massa subsequently launched legal action against the FIA and Formula One Management, with a trial scheduled for 2026. Beyond the courtroom, his statistical record stands: 11 wins, 41 podiums, 16 poles, and 15 fastest laps across 271 starts for Sauber, Ferrari, and Williams. He was runner-up in 2008, third in 2006, fourth in 2007, and sixth in 2010, 2011, and 2015. Since retiring from F1, Massa has served as president of the FIA Drivers’ Commission and remains active in the Stock Car Pro Series, where he finished runner-up in 2024.