Felipe Massa talks about his ‘secret’ Ferrari contract
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Felipe Massa reveals how he had to keep his first Ferrari contract as a secret.
Felipe Massa drove for Ferrari for 8 seasons between 2006 and 2013. He joined from Sauber, and then went on to race 139 times for the Maranello team, with 11 wins, and almost won a championship as well, in 2008. Undoubtedly, he’s one of the most successful drivers in the team’s history.
In 2003, he had driven for Ferrari as a test driver. After that, when he was released by Sauber, Ferrari signed him on in 2006 to partner Michael Schumacher. But Massa had already been a Ferrari young driver for a long time at that point, and he had to keep this a secret, with him only being allowed to tell family members.
Driving for Cram Competition, Massa had won both the “Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup’ and ‘Formula Renault Italy’ championships, and this is when many teams approached him, and the Prancing Horses were among them. Ferrari approached the young Brazilian to sign a ‘young driver’ contract with them when he was only 19 years of age.
Felipe Massa on driving for Ferrari “It was a dream come true.”
As reported by PlanetF1, Felipe Massa talked about his move to Ferrari in the film ‘Motorsport Heroes’. He said
“I won the Italian and European Formula Renault 2.0 championship in the same season. After that, many tried to get me under contract.”
According to Massa, Ferrari had been monitoring him for a long time: “A meeting was organized with Ferrari in Maranello. I didn’t know that at the time but they had been monitoring everything I had done: testing, telemetry, races, everything.”
“Then they said, ‘Okay, we’re going to sign a contract with you as a young driver for Ferrari’ – which had never been done before – ‘but you can’t tell anyone. It has to be a secret’.”
“So I signed an eight-year contract with Ferrari and wasn’t allowed to tell anyone! Just my family. That was incredibly difficult. Then I went to drive for Sauber, with Ferrari engines and then I got the call that Ferrari had decided to choose me. So in 2006, I was racing for Ferrari. That was a dream come true.”
After his move to Ferrari in 2006, Massa finished 3rd in the championship table, 41 points behind veteran teammate Michael Schumacher, and also won his first 2 races. In 2008, he came within one point of winning the championship with a very dramatic conclusion in the Brazilian Grand Prix meant he missed out, and instead, Lewis Hamilton won his first world title.
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Aniket Tripathi
(1002 Articles Published)