Brazilian Felipe Massa chose the run-up to this season’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza to announce his retirement at the end of the 2016 F1 season. During his 14-year career in F1, he won 11 Grands Prix and finished on the podium 41 times. When Massa steps out of his Williams FW38 after this November’ season-ending Abu Dhabi GP, it will have been his 250th race in Formula 1.
Massa entered F1 with Sauber in 2002, gaining a contract from Ferrari four years later in 2006, where he won two Grands Prix as Michael Schumacher’s teammate. He will be forever known as having the 2008 World Driver’s Championship in his hands for a heart-breaking 30-seconds before relinquishing the title to Lewis Hamilton.
Massa had entered the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix having been locked in the F1 driver’s title battle all season with Hamilton. To take the World Driver’s Championship, Massa had to finish first or second with Hamilton finishing no better than fifth. Massa took the pole and dominated the rest of the race, setting the fastest lap and winning by 13 seconds in the rain. With Hamilton in 6th and struggling for pace, Massa took the chequered flag, sure that he had won the championship. Indeed, live-feed television images showed Massa’s entire family alongside the Ferrari crew erupting with uncontrolled joy. Seconds later, their faces reflected stunned shock as Hamilton passed Timo Glock’s Toyota struggling for grip on his dry tyres, in the second-to-last corner. Hamilton moved into 5th place and, by gaining that additional place, won the Driver’s title by a just a single point. It would be as close as Massa would get to the championship.
