Felipe Massa

Interesting facts

Born in São Paulo but raised in the countryside town of Botucatu, he comes from a family of Italian heritage - his grandparents hailed from Cerignola in the province of Foggia. At the 2008 season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix, racing in front of his home crowd, he won the race in dominant fashion yet lost the world title by a single point after Lewis Hamilton passed Timo Glock in the closing corners of the final lap. During 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying, a suspension spring came loose from Rubens Barrichello's car and struck his helmet at roughly 260 km/h; he needed a titanium plate fitted into his skull afterward and missed the rest of the season. In 2023 he filed legal action against the FIA over the 2008 'Crashgate' scandal - Renault's deliberately staged crash in Singapore - arguing it cost him the championship; the case was set to go to trial in 2026. He returned to pole position in 2014, six years after his last one, this time with Williams, having earlier become the first Brazilian since Ayrton Senna to win at home in Interlagos, back in 2006. Felipe Massa made his Formula 1 debut in 2002 and raced until 2017, 15 seasons in total as a Brazilian driver. He scored a total of 1167 championship points over his career. His best season was 2008, when he finished 2nd in the championship with 97 points.