Massa reflects on his career

Felipe Massa has reflected on some of the most defining and important ups and downs of his Formula One career, and memories include looking back on his time with his 'teacher' Michael Schumacher as well as the 2009 Hungary Grand Prix qualifying crash which caused him serious injury.

After a storied F1 career, Massa retired at the end of the 2017 season as an 11-time Grand Prix winner, and although he never managed to claim any championships, he will be remembered as an excellent circuit driver.

Massa looked back on his employment with Ferrari and the teachings of record world champion, Schumacher.

“He [Schumacher] was my teacher, he was very nice and very kind to me all of the time. When he decided to stop he gave a big opportunity to me,” Massa said.

“2006 was my first victory and it was at home in Brazil. In Brazil we’ve always had drivers in Formula 1 with so many titles and so many victories.

Senna was the king so for me it was an amazing feeling to win.”

The closest that Massa came to the Formula One title was back in 2008 when he narrowly lost out to Lewis Hamilton, but he does not look back on the campaign with regret even if it was by the narrowest of margins in which he came up short.

“In 2008 what helped me through the disappointment was that I won the final race so I couldn’t do anything better than that,” Massa continued.

“It was not related to me, it was also related to the who was in the front of the championship but was behind in the race so that helped me also to be natural for the people and pass on my feelings. I am proud with everything that I’ve achieved.”

Massa went on to reflect on an accident during the qualifying for the 2009 Hungary Grand Prix in which he suffered a fractured skull and was rushed to hospital. He insisted he respected life a lot more after the incident.

“I think as a driver I didn’t change [after the accident],” he explained.

“What changed was that I respected a lot more life than before. I mean before you have a big accident you always think it will never happen to you."