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.

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. The pair remain at Ferrari for 2008.

Read more F1 Fanatic articles about Felipe Massa

Felipe Massa pictures