Ferrari F1 star Felipe Massa SHOCKS with team-mate tension admission

Ferrari

Ferrari star SHOCKS with team-mate tension admission

A Ferrari star has opened up over their team-mate rivalry

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Monday 19 August 2024 09:57

A Ferrari star has admitted to team-mate tension with a surprise driver in a recent interview.

Ferrari currently boasts the evenly matched roster of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who have often been described as one of the strongest team-mate pairings in F1.

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The two drivers have found themselves as even competition during their careers, with both stars possessing a win apiece this season.

However, Sainz will leave the team next season to make way for seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, surely a dynamic change for Leclerc.

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have both won in the 2024 season

Lewis Hamilton will replace Carlos Sainz at Ferrari in 2025

Felipe Massa compares Ferrari team-mates

Massa, clearly not one to let go of a sporting grudge, recently launched a controversial lawsuit over his infamous championship loss to Hamilton in 2008, when the Brazilian himself drove for Ferrari.

Hamilton will be hoping to acquire a record-breaking eighth world title when he makes the move to Maranello, and to go one better than F1 legend Michael Schumacher.

The two champions are currently tied on world titles, and both are frequently mentioned in the debate over who is the greatest driver of all time.

Whilst Schumacher may have not been the ideal team-mate for any driver to compete against, Felipe Massa revealed he actually ‘suffered more’ when paired with Fernando Alonso.

Felipe Massa revealed he 'suffered more' with Fernando Alonso than Michael Schumacher

“It’s not easy because you know you’re alongside the number one [Michael Schumacher] and everything the power a driver like that has is very big within the team,” Massa said to UOL Esporte.

“If he decides to do something, the team will do it. Then at work, it’s not easy and sometimes you have to swallow some things which are not easy.

“But I think that at the time, I suffered a lot more with [Fernando] Alonso than with him for example."

In a strikingly similar comparison to the environment Hamilton and Leclerc will soon find themselves in with the Scuderia, Massa concluded: “With him [Schumacher], it was a very big situation where Ferrari was investing in a young man like me and also, he is at the end of his moment in Formula 1 and also at Ferrari.”

Written by

Sheona Mountford - F1 Journalist

Sheona Mountford is a motorsport journalist specialising in F1. As a writer and contributor, she covers a wide range of motorsport series from F1 to F1 Academy, responsible for breaking news, live race coverage and in depth analysis of the sport and the culture around it.

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Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Daniel Ricciardo Charles Leclerc Carlos Sainz