Teams
Sauber – 2002, 2004-2005
Ferrari – 2006-

Massa won both the Italian and European Formula Renault championships in 2000 – taking the former despite having missed two races.

He moved to the Italian F3000 series the next year and won the championship with six wins from eight races.

Sauber

Massa was the European Formula 3000 champion and Peter Sauber snapped him up for 2002. Massa’s first season saw a lot of mistakes and following a collision with Pedro de la Rosa in the Italian Grand Prix Sauber kept him out of the cockpit for one race – his seat taken by Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who would replace Massa at the team for 2003.

But Massa scored a major coup by landing a Ferrari testing deal for 2003, courtesy of his manager Nicolas Todt, son of Ferrari boss Jean Todt. Massa developed not only the car but also his driving style, modelling himself on Michael Schumacher who won his sixth championship that year with Ferrari.

Massa returned to Sauber in 2004 with a lot more polish in his driving and started to deliver from results. He finished fourth at Spa after a memorable tussle with Juan Pablo Montoya, and qualifyied fourth at Shanghai and Interlagos in the closing stages of the season.

Although Massa was roundly beaten by more experienced team mate Giancarlo Fisichella, Massa remained with the team for 2005 as Fisichella moved to Renault. Jacques Villeneuve joined Massa at the team and the pair scored a fourth place apiece as their best results of the year , with Massa slightly ahead on points, 11-9.

Ferrari

With his fellow Brazilian Rubens Barrichello leaving Ferrari at the end of the year Massa joined Schumacher as race driver. The move confirmed the suspicions of many that Schumacher did not want a driver of comparable ability to his own in the second Ferrari, and the first half of 2006 seemed to support the widely held belief that Massa was out of his depth.

At Bahrain, Massa spun off while chasing Alonso. He crashed at Melbourne and in qualifying at Monte-Carlo. But in the second half of the year it all came together: Massa won from pole at Istanbul and repeated the feat at home.

2007

Schumacher left the team for 2007 and Massa would share joint team leader status with Kimi Raikkonen. at the end of the year Raikkonen was champion and Massa was fourth, but the gap between the two was only 16 points.

Massa showed great speed when leading from the front (Bahrain, Barcelona, Istanbul) but in wheel-to-wheel racing he was clearly still giving away something to his rivals. Lewis Hamilton tricked Massa into out-braking himself off the road at Malaysia, and Fernando Alonso stole victory from him late in the European Grand Prix – Massa risking contact with Alonso and earning a stern rebuke from his rival afterwards.

By the final race Massa was out of the hunt for the championship and surrendered the lead of his home race to Raikkonen so his team mate could be champion.

2008

Against expectations, Massa and Raikkonen’s roles were reversed in 2008. Massa won six times – with two inherited victories at Magny-Cours and Spa balanced out by two likely wins lost at the Hungaroring and Singapore.

Massa out-qualified and out-raced Raikkonen, and at the moment he crossed the finishing line at the final race it looked like he would become champion as well. In a cruel twist, Hamilton passed Timo Glock’s stricken Toyota on the final champion to deny Massa a home title win. Massa’s dignified reaction in defeat won him much admiration.

2009

The next season began poorly for Massa as the new F60 proved unreliable as well as slow to begin with. Once the car improved Massa began regularly scoring top-six finishes – but at Hungary his season took a shocking twist.

During qualifying a spring fell off the back of Rubens Barrichello’s car. Massa was the next driver on the scene and, with incredible misfortune, took a blow to the head when the spring hit his crash helmet.

Massa’s car then slammed into a barrier on the outside of the circuit. He was airlifted to hospital and a tense few days followed as the world waited to hear of his condition. Eventually, good news began to trickle through. His season was over, but he would race again.

Massa races for Ferrari once again in 2010 with new team mate Fernando Alonso.

Image (C) Ferrari spa