Felipe Massa is a Brazilian Formula One racing driver, currently driving for Ferrari. Massa started his career in go-karting from the age of eight continuing in national and regional championships for seven years. He moved into Formula Chevrolet and claimed the championship.
Massa started his Formula One career with Sauber before joining Ferrari as a test driver for 2003. He returned to Sauber for 2004 and 2005 before rejoining Ferrari where he won two races in 2006 including his home Grand Prix becoming the first Brazilian since Ayrton Senna to win the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Massa contributed to Ferrari's Constructors Championships in 2007 and 2008 and is under contract to race for the team until the end of the 2013 season.
Massa started well at Ferrari, qualifying second at the opening race in Bahrain, and coming from 21st position to 5th in Malaysia, beating teammate Michael Schumacher, who had started from 14th.
In Bahrain, however, in both Saturday practice and the race, Massa resumed his tendency to spin, narrowly missing Fernando Alonso, the eventual winner of the race. At the Australian GP he crashed his Ferrari in qualifying, then collided with Christian Klien and Nico Rosberg at the first corner of the race.
Nevertheless, Massa scored his first career podium at theNürburgring, finishing third behind Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso.
In Monaco Massa suffered a heavy crash during 3rd Practice on Saturday into St Devote corner.
He was driving down the main straight at almost 180 mph when his brakes locked and he slid into the barrier on the left hand side of the track. He lost control of the car and bounced off the wall ending up with a face on crash into the tyre wall ahead.
He was unhurt by the accident but the car was badly damaged and Massa was unable to take part in Qualifying later in the day. Ferrari engineers initially believed the crash to be attributable to driver error. Starting the race from 21st on the grid, Massa slowly made up ground before crashing again into St Devote in an almost identical accident.
After the crash Massa was taken to hospital in Monte Carlo but escaped with only minor injuries. This second incident caused Ferrari to investigate further, concluding that suspension failure, not driver error, was ultimately to blame
Source: DSX
