It is somehow befitting that Felipe Massa has found himself in the colours of Williams for the 2014 season. It’s as though his experience of Formula 1 has come full circle.
His first memories of the sport are sitting in the family home in Sao Paulo watching Nelson Piquet wrestle the FW11B to the 1987 world title.
There have been 27 different cars produced from the team’s Grove headquarters in the intervening years but Massa and Williams, on the early evidence at least, appear to be a good fit.
“I don’t obviously remember Carlos Pace as that was before my time so the first Brazilian I knew in Formula 1 was Nelson Piquet for Williams,” says Massa, transporting himself back to his six-year-old self.
“I remember Piquet was here a long time in different stints, and in Brazil it’s a very famous team with an incredible history.”
Not even the fact that Ayrton Senna died at the cockpit of a Williams car in 1994 has blurred the rose-tinted view the Brazilian public have of the team, even in recent years when times have been tough, according to Massa.
“Of course I remember Senna at Williams, every Brazilian does,” he adds. “But I recall more Piquet here, in what is a very famous team in Formula 1 that won many championships and races. They have always been there fighting. It’s a famous team I’m happy to be a part of.”
Considering the dire year they had last season when they managed a meagre five points in the championship standings, this season has been like a new dawn with seven top-eight finishes and 46 points to date. But things could have been infinitely better, for Massa in particular, had luck been on his side.
“Everything that could happen has in the early races,” he says. “Except for reliability problems. The car has been very good.
“In the first corner of the first race another driver [Kamui Kobayashi] pushed me out of the race. The second race, ok, nothing happened but in Bahrain, like Australia, a podium was possible but then the safety car came out which put me down to eighth and I eventually finished seventh. Then there was China where I was sixth before that problem with the pitstop. I’ve lost a lot of points but it’s not removed my motivation for the fight.”
If anything, the switch from Ferrari to Williams has given Massa a new lease of life. For much of his career, he was forced to play second fiddle at the Maranello team, first to Michael Schumacher and more recently Fernando Alonso.
At Williams, the outlook is considerably different. “When you are at a team for a long time it’s hard to leave, especially the biggest most famous team in F1,” he says.
“People say it’s a step back but it’s not been. It’s just different; I feel younger and people have given me a lot of respect,” his last comment intimating such respect was not always forthcoming at Ferrari.
Williams have built up an impressive personnel to assist Massa and teammate Valtteri Bottas. There is Rob Smedley, Massa’s former race engineer, and relatively new group CEO Mike O’Driscoll. While they lack the resources of Ferrari to push forward in-season development, there is a sense that finally Williams, with just one win in a decade, are turning the corner.
Can, though, they truly aspire to race wins in 2014? Massa replied: “No, I don’t think so as Mercedes are just too good, they have too much of an advantage.
“I cannot say 100 per cent we won’t win as something could happen to the Mercedes but, being realistic, it’s hard. But a podium is the goal and I think that’s realistic. We need to fight for that.”
In an era of the sport where independent teams like Williams rarely shine and instead the manufacturer behemoths are king, can Williams ever dream of adding to their haul of nine constructors’ championships, seven drivers’ titles and 114 grand prix victories? And similarly has Massa’s best chance of the title – in 2008 he finished painfully one point behind Lewis Hamilton – gone forever?
“For sure, I believe that we’re getting back to the top,” he says. “I really believe it can be possible to win for me and the team. I didn’t expect us to do so well so soon as we went from the worst year to the best year.
“That’s a good job and it makes me think anything is possible. You just need the right car at the right time. I believe. Maybe not this year but in one or two years, why not?”
The car that everyone currently aspires to drive at present is the Mercedes as shown by Hamilton’s ongoing dominance. Massa’s former title rival now boasts four victories from five races, the title seemingly sewn up for Mercedes with 14 grands prix remaining, including this weekend’s showpiece event in Monaco.
Hamilton has got much of the credit, unlike Sebastian Vettel in recent seasons, but Massa sees that as slightly unfair on the German.
“Seb was perfect last year and this year he’s struggling a bit because his car is not the best and his feeling for the car is not perfect,” says Massa. “I think when you have the best car it’s easier to be perfect and Lewis has that.
“For sure, Lewis is a great driver, he’s very competitive and quick. But the thing is that even if he makes a mistake he really knows that the worst that will happen is that he will finish second. Now, he’s one second quicker and even if we catch up he’s, say, half-a-second quicker. That’s a big advantage.”
So Massa is in the scrap for the also rans in a seemingly secondary championship behind Mercedes along with former employers Ferrari. Whatever the outcome, he has already proved that, in his own words, “there is life after Ferrari”.
Brazil’s top five racing drivers
1. Ayrton Senna
Earlier this month marked the 20-year anniversary of Senna’s untimely death at the San Marino Grand Prix. Arguably F1’s finest ever driver, undeniably Brazil’s, with three world titles and 41 race wins overall.
2. Nelson Piquet
Brazil’s other three-time world champion and a rival of Senna’s towards the latter part of his career, Piquet first rose to prominence by winning the 1981 world title and again in 1983 and 1987.
3. Emerson Fittipaldi
The elder statesman of Brazilian racing, he stood out for his versatility, twice winning the F1 drivers’ title – in 1972 and 1974 – as well as shining in CART racing, twice winning the Indy 500.
4. Carlos Pace
He may have only won one grand prix, his home race in 1975, but was seen as a forerunner in Brazilian motorsport along with Fittipaldi. He died in a light aircraft crash near Sao Paulo and the Interlagos circuit was renamed after him, the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace.
5. Felipe Massa
There’s little to choose between Massa and Rubens Barrichello, both of whom boast 11 grand prix victories and both had to play second fiddle to Michael Schumacher at the height of their careers. Massa came marginally closer to the world title – just one point away in fact in 2008 – so sneaks the fifth and final spot.
