• Race Car Driver Fernando Alonso Díaz, 1981
• Race Car Driver Felipe Massa, 1981

On 25 September 2005, he won the Formula One World Driver's Championship title at the age of 24 years and 58 days, at the time making him the youngest Formula One World Drivers' Champion. After retaining the title the following year, Alonso also became the youngest double Champion at the time. Nicknamed El Nano, a typical pseudonym for Fernando in Asturias, his place of birth, Alonso acted as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF.

Fernando Alonso was born in Oviedo, Asturias, in northern Spain. His mother worked in a department store and his father was employed as a mechanic in an explosives factory near Oviedo. Alonso has an older sister, Lorena. Alonso's father José Luis, an amateur kart racer, wanted to pass on his passion to his children. He built a kart, originally meant for eight year old Lorena, but unlike her three year old brother, she showed no interest in the sport.

Alonso married Raquel del Rosario, lead singer of Spanish pop band El Sueño de Morfeo, on 17 November 2006. They announced their intention to divorce in December 2011.

They lived in Oxford, England, until they moved their residence to Switzerland in 2006. Alonso owned a house in Mont - sur - Rolle, near Lake Geneva from 2006 to 2010, and in February 2010 he moved house to Lugano in order to be closer to his new Formula One employer Ferrari. It is highly common for Formula One stars to take up residence in Switzerland to reduce their tax bills. In the winter of 2010 – 11, Alonso moved back to Oviedo in order to be closer to friends and family, costing him an estimated £50 million in tax.

He is an avid card tricks fan and usually demonstrates various tricks during the race weekend. He is also interested in other sports, like cycling, football and tennis. Alonso hinted at running a cycling team in the 2011 edition of the Tour de France with Alberto Contador leading the team.

In addition to Spanish, he speaks English and Italian.

As a child, Alonso participated in karting competitions around Spain, supported by his father, who also doubled as his mechanic. His family lacked the financial resources needed to develop a career in motorsport, but his victories attracted sponsorship and the required funds. Alonso won four Spanish championships back - to - back in the junior category, between 1993 and 1996 and the Junior World Cup in 1996. He won the Spanish and Italian Inter-A titles in 1997 and in 1998 won the Spanish Inter-A title again as well as finishing second in the European Championship.

Former Minardi F1 driver Adrián Campos gave Alonso his first test in a race car in October 1998. After three days of testing at the Albacete circuit, Alonso had matched the lap times of Campos' previous driver Marc Gené. Campos signed Alonso to race for him in the 1999 Spanish Euro Open MoviStar by Nissan series. In his second race, again at Albacete, Alonso won for the first time. He took the championship by one point from championship rival Manuel Giao by winning and setting fastest lap at the last race of the season. Alonso also tested for the Minardi Formula One team, lapping 1.5 seconds faster than the other drivers at the test.

The following season Alonso moved up to Formula 3000, which was often the final step for drivers before ascending to Formula One. Alonso joined Team Astromega and was the youngest driver in the series that year by eleven months. Alonso did not score a point until the seventh race of the year, but in the final two rounds he took a second place and a victory, enough for him to end the season fourth overall behind Bruno Junqueira, Nicolas Minassian and Mark Webber.

Alonso was the third youngest driver ever to start a Formula One race when he made his debut with Minardi at the Australian Grand Prix. The team was in its first season under the control of new owner Paul Stoddart and their new car, the PS01, was neither fast nor reliable. However Alonso's qualifying performance was good, outqualifying team mate Tarso Marques by 2.6 seconds on début. At the fourth round at Imola he outqualified both Benettons, a feat he repeated later in the season.

Notable performances over the season earned him some attention from the faster teams. It was reported in September 2001 by some of the European press that Sauber were looking to replace outgoing Kimi Räikkönen with Alonso although he was facing competition for the seat from Felipe Massa and then Jaguar test driver André Lotterer. A month later it was confirmed that Massa was going to take the vacant Sauber seat for 2002.

In September, his manager Flavio Briatore had begun planning to place Alonso at Benetton. Briatore considered promoting Alonso for 2002, in place of his race driver Jenson Button, but instead chose to take Alonso on as Renault test driver for 2002. At the final round of the season at Suzuka he finished eleventh — five places outside the points but ahead of Heinz - Harald Frentzen's Prost, the BAR of Olivier Panis, the two Arrows and his team mate Alex Yoong. Four years later, his team boss from the Minardi days, Paul Stoddart, described his race as "53 laps of qualifying". He scored no points in the season; his best finish being tenth at the German Grand Prix.

Alonso became test driver for Renault in 2002 (Renault having taken over the Benetton team) and did 1,642 laps of testing that year. In 2003 Briatore dropped Button and put Alonso in the second seat alongside Jarno Trulli. Briatore was criticized by the British media for the decision, but technical director Mike Gascoyne later insisted to F1 Racing that the decision was correct, since the team had been impressed with Alonso's work rate and talent during his season as test driver.

The Spaniard became the youngest driver to achieve a Formula One pole position at the Malaysian Grand Prix. Alonso had a 180 mph crash at the Brazilian Grand Prix, the result of missing the double yellow flags and Safety Car boards brought out by Mark Webber's earlier crash and colliding with the debris. The race was red flagged. He finished second at his home grand prix two races later, and at the time became the youngest driver to win a Formula One race at the Hungarian Grand Prix. He finished the year sixth in the championship, with 55 points and four podiums.

Alonso remained with Renault for the 2004 season, scoring podiums in Australia, France, Germany and Hungary. At Indianapolis he suffered a high speed accident while running in third place after a tire deflated. In France he took pole position and finished second, running Michael Schumacher close for victory. Towards the end of the year team mate Jarno Trulli's performances deteriorated and he dropped Renault boss Flavio Briatore as his manager. Trulli's relationship with the team deteriorated to the extent that he signed for Toyota from 2005 onwards, and he was replaced for the final three races of the season by former world champion Jacques Villeneuve. Alonso ended the year fourth in the championship standings with 59 points.

For the 2005 season, Alonso was joined at Renault by Italian driver Giancarlo Fisichella. At the first race in Australia Alonso started near the back due to rain in qualifying but fought his way to third. He won the next two races in Malaysia and Bahrain from pole position, and took a third win in the San Marino Grand Prix after a 13 lap battle with Michael Schumacher.

McLaren's improving form saw Räikkönen win in Spain and Monaco while Alonso finished second and fourth, respectively. Räikkönen was on course to win the European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring when his car's front right suspension failed (due to a flat spot on the tire caused by Räikkönen locking his wheels under braking while passing Jacques Villeneuve) on the last lap, giving victory to Alonso.

Alonso failed to score in the Canadian and United States Grands Prix. He crashed out of the former, and in the latter all the Michelin runners withdrew due to safety concerns over their tires. Alonso took his third pole position and fifth win at the French Grand Prix. He followed this with pole position a week later at the British Grand Prix, where he finished second behind Montoya. McLaren's Kimi Räikkönen led the German Grand Prix until his car's hydraulics failed. Alonso went on to win the race.

Alonso qualified sixth in the Hungarian Grand Prix but finished 11th after a collision with the Toyota of Ralf Schumacher. As the season entered its final stages Alonso finished second in three consecutive races, collecting vital championship points. Räikkönen won in Turkey and Belgium, but was fourth at Monza after engine trouble in qualifying, meaning Alonso's lead had been reduced by only one point.

Alonso sealed the title by finishing third in Brazil while Montoya won from Räikkönen. The Spaniard became the youngest Drivers' Champion at the age of 24 years and 59 days old, breaking Emerson Fittipaldi's record. He also ended the five year dominance of Michael Schumacher.

Commenting on his victory, he said: "I just want to dedicate this championship to my family, and all my close friends who have supported me through my career. Spain is not a country with an F1 culture, and we had to fight alone, every step of the way, to make this happen. A huge thank - you should also go to the team as well – they are the best in Formula One, and we have done this together. It will say that I am world champion, but we are all champions – and they deserve this." In the May 2007 issue of F1 Racing, Alonso said that the 2005 Brazilian Grand Prix was his greatest race. He said, "It was a dream come true and a very emotional day. In the last few laps I leaped, thinking I could hear noises from the engine - from everywhere! But all was okay and I can remember my relief when I crossed the finish line."

The Japanese and Chinese Grands Prix saw Alonso and Renault abandon the conservative style evident in Brazil when he was still chasing the drivers' title. Starting from 16th on the grid, he eventually finished third behind Räikkönen and Fisichella. The Chinese Grand Prix saw Renault and Alonso win to claim the first Constructors' Championship for the Renault F1 team.

In 2005, he was awarded with the Sports Prince of Asturias Award.

Alonso won the first race of the 2006 season in Bahrain, overtaking Michael Schumacher after coming out of the pit lane with 18 laps left, after starting fourth. He qualified seventh at the Malaysian Grand Prix due to a fueling error but finished second to team mate Giancarlo Fisichella. He won the Australian Grand Prix after overtaking leader Jenson Button's Honda.

After poor qualifying at San Marino, Alonso was unable to pass Michael Schumacher in an encounter that echoed their battle the previous year. Schumacher beat Alonso again in the European Grand Prix after the Spaniard started on pole, but Alonso hit back, becoming the first Spaniard to win the Spanish Grand Prix. Alonso took pole position for the Monaco Grand Prix after Schumacher was penalized by the stewards for "deliberately [stopping] his car on the circuit in the last few minutes of qualifying", denying his rivals, Alonso included, the opportunity of recording fastest qualifying lap. Alonso won the race.

He extended his winning streak to four races with victories in Britain and Canada. Both wins came from pole position, and the British round was his first win, pole and fastest lap hat trick. He also became the first driver in history to finish first or second in the first nine races of the season, a record equaled by Sebastian Vettel in 2011. Schumacher's fight back began at Indianapolis where the German won and Alonso was fifth. Schumacher won the French Grand Prix, with Alonso in second, and the Spaniard was fifth in the German Grand Prix. That cut Alonso's championship lead to 11 points.

Alonso incurred a penalty for an infraction in practice at the Hungarian Grand Prix which left him 15th on the grid. Schumacher started 11th after receiving a similar penalty. Alonso looked set for an unlikely win as he overtook most of the field, including Schumacher around the outside of turn five, as he showed prowess in the wet conditions, but he crashed out of the race when a wheel nut fell off his car following a pit stop. Schumacher scored one point after Robert Kubica was disqualified.

Alonso finished second in Turkey, holding back third - placed Schumacher to claim two vital points, but he lost a lot of ground after a controversial Italian Grand Prix. He suffered a puncture during qualifying that damaged bodywork at the back of his car. He qualified fifth but was later punished by the stewards for impeding Felipe Massa's Ferrari, and he started the race from tenth. In the race he rose to third place before an engine failure forced him to retire. Schumacher won the Grand Prix and cut Alonso's Championship lead to two points.

At the following round in China, Alonso took pole position during a wet qualifying session but finished second to Schumacher in the race. The result tied Alonso and Schumacher on points in the drivers championship. At the Japanese Grand Prix, the Ferraris of Schumacher and Massa qualified first and second, more than half a second faster than the Renaults in fifth and sixth. But during the race Alonso rose to second and took the win after Schumacher's engine failed. It gave him a ten point advantage over Schumacher, needing only one point from the final round to retain the title. Second place in the Brazilian Grand Prix on 22 October gave Alonso the championship. With Schumacher finishing fourth, the final difference was 13 points. Alonso thus became the youngest double champion in the sport's history. Renault also clinched the Constructors' Championship with a 5-point gap over Ferrari.

On 19 December 2005, Alonso announced that he would be moving to McLaren for 2007. His contract with Renault was set to expire on 31 December 2006. However, on 15 December 2006, Alonso was allowed by Flavio Briatore and the Renault F1 Team to test for one day for McLaren at Jerez, as a result of his successes with Renault. Driving an unbranded MP4-21 and wearing a plain white helmet and overalls, Alonso completed 95 laps. Lewis Hamilton was chosen as his partner for the season. McLaren were reported to be paying Alonso £ 20 million (approx $ 39 million c. 2007) in 2007. Alonso debuted with the new McLaren car on 15 January 2007, in the streets of Valencia.

On 8 April 2007 in his second race for the team, Alonso secured his first win for McLaren, and the team's first since 2005, by leading the majority of the Malaysian Grand Prix. A difficult drive at Bahrain's Sakhir circuit a week later, saw him finishing fifth behind his rookie team mate who took a podium finish. In the fourth race of the year in Spain, his home grand prix, he qualified second, but suffered a first lap collision with Felipe Massa which caused some damage to his car and dropped him to fourth, before finishing third. On 27 May, Alonso secured his second victory for McLaren at Monaco, scoring pole position, fastest lap and the race win and in the process lapping the entire field up to 3rd position. At the Nürburgring he took his third win of the year in a dramatic race affected by intermittent rain showers, overtaking Massa for the lead with just four laps remaining. After the controversy at the Hungarian Grand Prix, however, relations between Alonso and his team declined. It was reported in the media that he was no longer on speaking terms with Hamilton, and it was speculated that he might leave McLaren at the end of the season. On 7 August 2007 The Times reported that McLaren would let Alonso leave the team at the end of the season if he wished, two years earlier than his contract allowed. Alonso went on to finish third in the driver's championship, level on points with team mate Hamilton and just one point behind World Champion Kimi Räikkönen (the closest 1–2–3 in WDC history).

As part of the espionage controversy between McLaren and Ferrari, the former were found guilty of breaching the Article 151c of the FIA's sporting regulations but went unpunished due to a lack of evidence. However, following the acquisition of new evidence by the FIA, a new hearing was held on 13 September. The new evidence consisted largely of email traffic between Alonso and test driver Pedro de la Rosa. The FIA's World Motor Sport Council report following the hearing stated that Alonso and de la Rosa had obtained and used confidential Ferrari technical data and sporting strategy information from senior McLaren engineer Mike Coughlan via Ferrari employee Nigel Stepney, including during test sessions. Both drivers were spared sanctions in exchange for providing evidence.

On 2 November 2007, after a turbulent year with McLaren, it was announced that McLaren and Alonso had mutually agreed to terminate his contract and that he would be free to join any team for 2008 without paying McLaren any compensation.

Alonso was linked with several teams for the 2008 season after his split with McLaren. Renault, Red Bull, Toyota and Honda were all suggested in the media. Renault's Flavio Briatore stated that he would welcome Alonso's return to the French team. On 10 December 2007, Alonso signed a two year contract to drive for Renault alongside Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet, Jr. for around £25 million.

In the first two rounds of the 2008 season, the Renault was not as competitive as it had previously been. Alonso finished fourth and eighth in Australia and Malaysia respectively, fueling rumors that Alonso would leave the team because he was disappointed with his Renault and was either moving to BMW Sauber, Honda or Toyota. BMW boss Mario Theissen was keen to get Alonso to replace Nick Heidfeld in order to get the team their first win. Honda rumors started when Alonso said in an interview that he felt there was something about Honda and he wanted to drive for them in 2009 and switching to Ferrari in 2010. Toyota said they were eager to give a top driver their seat. But the most likely place that Alonso would go was to replace Felipe Massa at Ferrari in 2009, especially in light of the general belief that there was an "out clause" in Fernando Alonso's contract with Renault which would give him the freedom to move to another team for the next season should he be able to secure a deal. However Ferrari president Luca Cordero di Montezemolo stated that Massa's seat in the team was secure and would stay that way until the end of his contract in 2010. Räikkönen was also given a two year contract extension to partner Massa until the end of 2010, essentially closing the door on Alonso for a possible move to Ferrari. In 2008, Alonso denied the "out clause" rumor.

In the Bahrain Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton ran into the back of Alonso's Renault, heavily damaging the rear wing of the Spaniard's car, as well as his own nosecone. Stewards did not seek to investigate the incident but critics alleged he braked (or did not accelerate as expected) in front of Hamilton causing Hamilton to crash into him. The telemetry data from Alonso's car proved these accusations to be wrong. Hamilton himself stated "I was behind him, and I moved to the right, and he moved to the right and that was it – a racing incident I guess". It was later revealed by McLaren that Hamilton's front wing, which was damaged when he hit Alonso earlier in the race, had broken seconds before the impact and has been identified as the cause of the crash. Alonso started the Spanish Grand Prix with promising pace, qualifying on the front row in second place behind Kimi Räikkönen even though he had a light fuel load. He was running in fifth place when his engine blew on lap 35. He praised his team after finishing sixth in the Turkish Grand Prix, as he was behind the more competitive BMW cars at the end, and said that the result "confirms the progress we have made, and is thanks to the hard work of everyone in the team".

Alonso failed to score in the next two races, finishing tenth at the Monaco Grand Prix, after puncturing a tire against the barrier and a collision with Nick Heidfeld and retiring from the Canadian Grand Prix after crashing into the wall on lap 45, having qualified fourth. Alonso had been keeping pace with the BMW Saubers, who would eventually go on to record their maiden win with Robert Kubica after pit lane dramas plagued both Ferrari and McLaren. In France, Alonso qualified behind the two Ferraris in third, aided by Lewis Hamilton's grid penalty for the pit lane accident in Canada. However, he was on a light fuel load, and his task was made much harder by being beaten by the slower Toyota of Jarno Trulli at the start. He then faded back to seventh and towards the end of the race while catching Mark Webber's Red Bull he ran wide at the Adelaide hairpin and slipped behind team mate Piquet, Jr. to finish eighth.

Alonso finished sixth at Silverstone, saying that he had used up all of his available tires for the unpredictable wet conditions, and that by using practically slick tires towards the end, he lost a lot of time in certain places on the track. Despite qualifying fifth at the German Grand Prix, he finished in eleventh after spinning off whilst battling with the Williams of Nico Rosberg. In the Hungarian Grand Prix, he finished in fourth place having started seventh, aided by Lewis Hamilton's early puncture and Felipe Massa's engine failing in the closing stages.

In the European Grand Prix, Alonso performed strongly in all three practice sessions and the first round of qualifying. However, he failed to make it through the second round of qualifying, starting 12th. During the opening lap of the race, Alonso was hit by Kazuki Nakajima in the rear wing of his car and sustained unrepairable damage to his gearbox, and was forced to retire from the race. In Belgium, Alonso ran in the top five for most of the race, but when heavy rain fell towards the end of the race, he gambled on pitting for wet tires with one lap to go. He dropped four places, but a fast final lap saw him reclaim the lost spots, passing Kubica and Sebastian Vettel at the final corner. In the Italian Grand Prix, Alonso achieved his second consecutive fourth place, and allowed Renault to equal Toyota for fourth in the constructors standings.

Alonso claimed his first victory and podium of the season by winning the Singapore Grand Prix. After performing strongly in practice, a fuel pressure problem in the second part of qualifying forced him to park the car, causing him to qualify 15th. In the race he started with a light fuel load on soft tires, and pitted early when he realized that this would not be successful. However, team mate Piquet crashed bringing out the safety car, which eliminated the lead of the front runners. When they pitted after the pit lane was reopened, they rejoined behind those who had already stopped. This moved Alonso up among top six, and he ultimately won the race, earning the 20th win and 50th podium of his career. In September 2009, after being dropped by Renault, Piquet said that the crash had been intentional and had been requested by Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds. Alonso was declared to be innocent by the subsequent FIA investigation.

Alonso carried his good form into the Japanese Grand Prix, for which he qualified fourth. Running on a two stop strategy Alonso won his second successive race, finishing ahead of Kubica and Räikkönen. In the last 2 races in China and Brazil, Alonso scored a fourth and a second place respectively. In the last eight races of the season Alonso scored 48 points, which was more than any other driver (over the same period Massa scored 43 points and Hamilton scored 40 points). He finished the season fifth overall with 61 points, while also enabling Renault to finish fourth in the constructors standings with 80 points, ahead of fifth placed Toyota.

On 5 November, Flavio Briatore confirmed that Renault had agreed a two year extension on Alonso's original contract, ending speculation about a supposed move to Ferrari, and a Renault contract "out - clause".

The new Renault R29 car did not meet up to Alonso's expectations at the start of the year, after it performed poorly in winter testing, despite the fact that there were no major reliability issues. For the second consecutive year, Nelson Piquet, Jr. would be his team mate.

In the Australian Grand Prix he avoided a first lap accident and benefited from the late safety car in the closing stages, deployed for Robert Kubica and Sebastian Vettel's collision, to finish fifth. Although pleased to score points, he was "disappointed" at how his KERS system worked during the race. He did not score points in Malaysia (eleventh) or China (ninth, after he qualified in second), finishing over a minute behind the race winner on both occasions.

He finished eighth in the Bahrain Grand Prix, despite struggling with a broken drinks bottle during the race, which resulted in him collapsing with dehydration during a post race TV interview. In Spain he spent most of the race in sixth despite an exciting battle with Mark Webber early on, before capitalizing on Felipe Massa backing off with fuel conservation worries on the last lap, and going on to finish fifth. In Monaco, he benefited from the retirements of Heikki Kovalainen and Sebastian Vettel to score two points for seventh after a steady performance from ninth on the grid.

He failed to score any points in Turkey, as he was unable to keep pace with the front runners, and struggled on to finish tenth, while in Britain, he lost places at the start, and got stuck behind Nick Heidfeld early on. Despite some good fights, especially with former teammate Lewis Hamilton, the poor pace of his car meant he was always likely to struggle for points and finished in 14th, two places behind team mate Piquet. At the Nurburgring, Alonso lost places at the first corner, before getting stuck in traffic. However, he went on to finish seventh, and was catching the two Brawn cars of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello towards the end. For the last stint, he was the fastest man on the track, half a second quicker than the leaders, which resulted in the fastest lap of the race.

In Hungary, he took his only pole position of the season (on a short fuel load), and led for the first stint of the race until his retirement, when his pit crew fitted a wheel incorrectly. After replacing the wheel, Alonso retired with a fuel pump problem. In Valencia, he finished in sixth place, describing it was the best he could do, after his team appealed successfully over a one race ban suspended for the race after the pit stop incident in Hungary. However, his fastest race lap was slower than new team mate Romain Grosjean, replacing the sacked Piquet, despite Grosjean spending most of the race towards the back.

Alonso was forced to retire in Belgium in a near repeat of the front tire incident in Hungary, although this time the tire was damaged after contact with Adrian Sutil's Force India on the first lap. This led to a chaotic pit stop when a replacement tire could not be fitted properly and his team chose to retire him on safety grounds to avoid a further sanction following the Hungarian incident. At Monza he finished fifth, passing McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen during the race, despite again complaining about the car's KERS system, particularly after getting away from the grid poorly.

He finished in a strong third place in Singapore, admitting that it was a great result, "allowing to put behind us the past few weeks". However, this was his and Renault's only podium of 2009, a year after the Crashgate saga. Alonso controversially dedicated his podium afterwards to recently departed team boss Flavio Briatore, saying "he is part of the success we had today".

In Japan, he was penalized five grid places for failing to slow down for yellow flags after Sébastien Buemi crashed, scattering debris onto the track. The R29's pace was again disappointing, when he could only manage to climb up to 10th from 16th place on the grid, despite a late safety car period after Jaime Alguersuari crashed heavily. Alonso said that his race was pretty much decided in qualifying, although he admitted that his car seemed to be fairly competitive. In Brazil however, he retired on the first lap when Adrian Sutil and Jarno Trulli collided, and Alonso was unable to avoid the out - of - control Force India, which had spun onto the wet grass, terminally damaging a sidepod on the Spaniard's car, forcing him to retire.

He admitted that he had wanted to end his successful period at Renault on a high at the final race of the year in Abu Dhabi. However, he spent the whole race towards the back of the grid, and finished 14th after qualifying in 16th. After the race, he paid tribute to Renault, saying that he wanted "to thank the entire team for everything that we have achieved together", and wanted to concentrate on the positives during his time with Renault, which had included winning the 2005 and 2006 world championship titles. He finished ninth in the drivers standings overall, scoring all of Renault's 26 points during the season. As a result, Renault only finished eighth in the constructors ahead of two other teams, Force India and Toro Rosso.

After much speculation, on 30 September 2009, Alonso was confirmed to be replacing Kimi Räikkönen at the Ferrari team, partnering Felipe Massa, a move known as "the worst - kept secret in F1". His contract covered three seasons (2010 – 2012), with speculated options until the end of 2014. Though his contract was said to have been signed as early as July 2008, Alonso confirmed only having a Summer 2009 agreement with Ferrari for a 2011 start, which was later changed to 2010. Ferrari and Räikkönen, whom Alonso will replace, had agreed to end their contract one year early. Though it was reported that Alonso's contract was worth €25-million per season, Ferrari released a statement that cast doubts over the salary offered, stating that "the numbers talked about have absolutely nothing to do with reality." Ferrari also cast doubt on "the arrival of technicians" with Alonso.

At the first race in Bahrain, Alonso qualified third behind team mate Massa and pole sitter Sebastian Vettel. At the start, Alonso got ahead of Massa to move up to second and later on in the race, leader Vettel had an engine problem and dropped to fourth and Alonso won the race, becoming the fifth man to win on his debut for Ferrari after Juan Manuel Fangio in 1956, Mario Andretti in 1971, Nigel Mansell in 1989, and Kimi Räikkönen in 2007. Team mate Massa came second taking a 1–2 for Ferrari and Alonso's former McLaren team mate Lewis Hamilton came through to finish third.

In the Australian Grand Prix, Alonso qualified third behind the two Red Bull cars of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber. At the start, on a damp track, Alonso was tipped into a spin by eventual race winner Jenson Button, and rejoined last. Alonso charged back to fourth and then held off late race attacks from Lewis Hamilton and Mark Webber to finish fourth, only two seconds behind teammate Felipe Massa.

In China, Alonso qualified third again, behind Vettel and Webber. Alonso jumped the start, for which he was later given a drive through penalty, which dropped him down to 15th, over a minute behind race leader Nico Rosberg. With the help of a safety car which bunched the field together, and due to a series of overtaking maneuvers, Alonso finished fourth. During the race, one of his overtaking maneuvers was on team mate Massa as the two entered the pit lane to change to intermediate tires when the rain came. This aggressive overtaking, in which Massa had to put two wheels on the grass to avoid a collision, and then had to wait behind Alonso during Alonso's stop which cost him a few places, raised questions that all was not well between the Ferrari team mates. However, both drivers quickly quashed the speculation, saying that the overtaking did not affect the relationship between the drivers at all, and that they are as friendly as they were before.

The first European round was in Spain where Alonso qualified fourth behind the Red Bulls and former McLaren team mate Hamilton. Alonso ran fourth until the final 15 laps of the race, when he first was elevated to third after Vettel suffered brake problems which forced him to go for an extra pit stop, and then gained another place when Hamilton's tire failed on the penultimate lap. He finished second, thus getting his first podium after the win in Bahrain. In Monaco, Alonso crashed his car in practice and was unable to take part in qualifying. He started 24th and last but charged up to sixth. On the last lap, Michael Schumacher passed him under the safety car to take the place, but was then penalized for the overtaking, giving sixth back to Alonso.

For the Canadian Grand Prix, Alonso qualified fourth and was promoted to third after Mark Webber's penalty for a gearbox change. He finished third after a racelong battle with the McLarens and Red Bulls, getting only his second podium after his win in Bahrain. In the next round in Valencia, Alonso secured fourth on the grid in qualifying. During the race, he was right on the gearbox of Lewis Hamilton's McLaren when the Safety Car was deployed following Mark Webber's somersaulting crash after rear - ending Heikki Kovalainen. After a brief hesitation, Hamilton drove past the Safety Car, while Alonso and Massa took up position behind it. This allowed the McLaren driver (and several other drivers) to secure a significant advantage, and following their pit stops, the Ferrari drivers found themselves at the tail end of the field. Alonso was heard over the team radio insisting that Ferrari take up the matter with race director Charlie Whiting. The FIA stewards did ultimately award Hamilton a drive through penalty, but the significant delay between the offense and the verdict (due to a delay in securing aerial footage of Hamilton's pass on the Safety Car) and the relatively short length of the pit lane at Valencia, meant that Hamilton was able to re-emerge from the pits without losing position. Finishing the race in eighth position, Alonso criticized the FIA for 'manipulating' the race result, a statement which he later moderated. Ferrari were equally critical of the FIA's stewarding of the event.

At the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Alonso lined up third on the grid. However, clutch problems at the start caused his Ferrari to bog down and Alonso had dropped several positions by the time the pack reached the first corner. Alonso attempted to stage a fightback, and while attempting to pass Robert Kubica's Renault down the outside at Vale, was forced on to the grass as Kubica closed the door on him. Alonso rejoined the track ahead of Kubica, and maintained track position ahead of the Pole. Alonso was heard on the radio explaining to his team that Kubica had forced him on to the grass, while Kubica informed his team that Alonso had illegally passed him by cutting the chicane. After some delay, the stewards awarded Alonso a drive through penalty for failing to yield the position back to Kubica. The situation was further exacerbated by the untimely deployment of the Safety Car owing to debris on the track, which bunched the field up, and caused Alonso to drop to the tail of the pack once he served his penalty. Alonso crossed the line in fourteenth place, a minute behind race winner Mark Webber, setting the fastest lap of the race on the final lap, having changed tires after a puncture. More accusations followed after the race, with Ferrari alleging that the FIA had not responded to their requests for clarification, and the FIA insisting that they had requested Ferrari to give back Alonso's position to Kubica and thus obviate the need for an inquiry.

For the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, Alonso missed pole position by 0.002 seconds to Vettel, with Massa qualifying third. In the race, Vettel made a poor start and attempted to compensate by squeezing Alonso towards the pit wall. Seizing this opportunity, Massa overtook both of them, and entered the first corner with Alonso and Vettel in second and third places. Alonso then controversially overtook Massa and they crossed the line in that order to give Ferrari a 1–2 finish. For the Hungarian Grand Prix, Alonso qualified in third place, behind the two Red Bulls of Vettel and Webber. As the lights went out, he passed Webber into second place, and then drew alongside Vettel on the outside going into the first corner. Alonso lost out to Webber at the pit stops, but got ahead of Vettel when the latter was given a drive through penalty. He was able to hold off Vettel and finish the race in second place. After a promising start in Belgium, qualifying yielded a disappointing grid position of tenth place. When the race started, things went from bad to worse as Alonso was torpedoed from behind by Rubens Barrichello's sliding Williams. Alonso recovered to eighth before spinning out of the race in the closing stages.

At the Italian Grand Prix, Alonso claimed pole position ahead of Jenson Button, but trailed Button by the first corner. Alonso and Massa pursued the McLaren until it pitted. Alonso pitted the next lap, with a quicker stop allowing Alonso to return to the track wheel to wheel with Button, and narrowly edged him out into the first corner. He pulled clear to claim his 24th career win, his third of the season, and Ferrari's first win at Monza since 2006. As an added bonus, Alonso also claimed the fastest lap of the race, resulting in a hat trick (pole, win and fastest lap). At the Singapore Grand Prix, Alonso took pole position ahead of Vettel, the McLarens of Hamilton and Button and the second Red Bull of championship leader Webber. When the lights went out, Alonso made a solid start and led Vettel into the first corner. Alonso soaked up pressure from Vettel for the entire race and crossed the line less than 0.3 seconds ahead of the Red Bull. Once more, Alonso set the fastest lap of the race in the closing stages. In Japan, Alonso finished third, behind Vettel and Webber, then won in Korea after Vettel retired with engine failure. He also scored his fifth fastest lap of the year, enough to give him the 2010 DHL Fastest Lap Award after a countback with Lewis Hamilton.

In Abu Dhabi, Alonso entered the event with an eight point lead, and qualified third. At the start of the race he lost a place to Button and then a strategic error by his team meant that Alonso spent the rest of the race stuck behind Vitaly Petrov, and lost out on world championship honors to Sebastian Vettel.

Alonso started the season with a fourth place in Australia, finishing half a minute behind race winner Sebastian Vettel. He followed that up with sixth and seventh places in Malaysia and China, being outperformed by team mate Massa in both races. He took his first podium of the season with third at the Turkish Grand Prix, having run second for a time and was only passed by Mark Webber on lap 51 of 58. Prior to his home race in Spain, he extended his contract with Ferrari for a further four years, until the end of 2016. In Spain, Alonso qualified third, and took the race lead into the first turn. However, he was overtaken by the Red Bulls in the first set of pit stops, and eventually finished fifth, one lap down. In Monaco, after qualifying fourth, Alonso was running strongly in third place behind Vettel – who was on heavily worn tires – and Button, and was promoted to second when Button pitted after being unable to pass Vettel. A multi car crash then resulted in a red flag situation, allowing Vettel and Alonso to change to fresh tires for the restart, with Alonso finishing the race in second.

Alonso was forced to retire in Canada after contact with Button left his car beached on a kerb. He bounced back to finish second in Valencia. At the British Grand Prix, controversial blown diffuser systems were temporarily banned, which was perceived to give Ferrari an advantage over its rivals. Alonso was running second to Vettel in the race, until a mistake from the Red Bull mechanics in a pit stop gave Alonso the lead, which he maintained until the end of the race to take his first victory of the season. Alonso finished second in Germany after a race - long battle with eventual winner Lewis Hamilton, and Mark Webber. He took his fourth successive podium by finishing third in Hungary, before finishing fourth in Belgium, after being overtaken by Webber and Button in the closing stages. Alonso took the lead of the Italian Grand Prix in the first corner, but was later passed by Vettel and Button. He was able to defend third place from Hamilton at the end of the race to take another podium. Alonso finished second to Button in Japan, and added a third place in India and second in Abu Dhabi. Alonso closed the season with fourth in Brazil to finish fourth in the Drivers' Championship, losing third place to Webber by one point, after Webber won the race.

Having signed a contract extension during the 2011 season, Alonso remained with Ferrari for the 2012 season. Ferrari appeared to be struggling for pace in pre-season testing; in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix, Alonso lost the rear of his car at turn one during the second part of qualifying and his car became beached in the gravel, and ultimately lined up twelfth on the grid. He drove a strong race to finish 5th. At the next race in Malaysia, the Ferrari's lack of pace was again demonstrated with Alonso qualifying ninth. However, in the race, which started in wet conditions, Alonso drove strongly, taking the lead on lap 16. Sauber's Sergio Pérez began to quickly catch Alonso, despite a slow pit stop, and looked to be close to passing Alonso, until he ran wide, giving Alonso an unexpected first win of the season. Alonso finished third in the Monaco Grand Prix putting him into the lead of the Drivers' Championship this season ahead of Sebastian Vettel, the 2011 champion, and Vettel's team mate at Red Bull, Mark Webber, who won at Monaco. However, a fifth place in the Canadian Grand Prix behind Lewis Hamilton's first and Sebastian Vettel's fourth put him behind Hamilton in the championship table. He took the lead again in dramatic fashion in the European Grand Prix where he started 11th on the grid and was able to climb his way up to win the race after his 2 main competitors Vettel and Hamilton retired because of a mechanical failure and an accident respectively.

Ahead of 2012, Alonso extended his contract with Ferrari until 2016. His main competition for the title in 2012 was Vettel. Wins in Malaysia, Valencia and Germany and consistent points scoring finishes allowed him to build a 40 point lead in the Drivers' Championship. Thereafter start line collisions, a mechanical failure and an improved performance for Vettel eliminated Alonso's points lead. Alonso entered the season ending Brazilian Grand Prix 13 points behind Vettel and needed to finish third and for Vettel not to score points for a third championship. He was second and Vettel finished fourth to be runner-up for the second time in his career on 278 points.

To begin 2013, Alonso drove an aggressively designed car allowing him to win in China and Spain and consistently scored points. He was slower than Vettel after a change of tyre compound at the German Grand Prix and front and rear bodywork components intended to improve his car's performance were ineffective. With 242 points, Alonso was second for the third time in his career. His relationship with Ferrari cooled due to his perception the team could not construct a title winning car. Alonso's 2014 season saw him achieve no race wins because his car was less powerful than the championship winning Mercedes but took third in the Chinese Grand Prix and second in the Hungarian Grand Prix. Alonso fell to sixth in the Drivers' Championship with 161 points. He qualified faster than his teammate Räikkönen 16 times by an average of more than ½ second per lap in 2014.

Alonso had severe disagreements with team principal Marco Mattiacci in 2014 and left Ferrari after contract negotiations to remain at the team fell through. He rejoined McLaren on a three year contract from 2015 to 2017 with no opt-out clauses. An accident during a pre-season test session at Spain's Circuit de Barcelona - Catalunya in February 2015 saw Alonso sustain an concussion and he was replaced by reserve driver Kevin Magnussen for the season opening Australian Grand Prix. He endured a difficult season: his car's Honda engine was under - powered and overall speed leaving him vulnerable to being passed. Alonso scored points twice in 2015: a tenth in the British Grand Prix and a fifth in the Hungarian Grand Prix for 17th in the Drivers' Championship with 11 points. He was dissatisfied with a slow pace, which became evident after multiple radio complaints that year.

Despite the unreliable and noncompetitive car, Alonso remained for McLaren for 2016. Injuries from a heavy crash with Esteban Gutiérrez at the season opening Australian Grand Prix caused him to miss the Bahrain Grand Prix on medical grounds and was replaced by reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne. Alonso qualified better than teammate Button fifteen times and scored points nine times, which included two fifth place finishes in the Monaco Grand Prix and the United States Grand Prix. He was tenth in the Drivers' Championship with 54 points. Alonso told his colleagues he would stay at McLaren in 2017. Poor unreliability affected his season, particularly during the early rounds, and his best finish was a seventh in the Hungarian Grand Prix. After three consecutive top ten finishes, Alonso finished 15th in the Drivers' Championship with 17 points.

Following contract negotiations with the McLaren CEO Zak Brown, Alonso signed a multi - year extension with McLaren on 19 October 2017. He finished fifth at the season opening Australian Grand Prix and took nine top ten finishes. Alonso out-qualified his teammate Stoffel Vandoorne at every race and drove quickly and aggressively. He became increasingly annoyed with certain drivers and his commitment to Formula One waned after McLaren stopped developing his car to focus on 2019. Alonso was 11th in the Drivers' Championship with 50 points, and left the sport as a driver at the end of the year, citing a perceived lack of on-track racing, the predictability of results and felt discussions away from racing about the broadcast of radio transmissions and polemics harmed the series.

He remained at McLaren as a brand ambassador to aid and advise drivers and drove in select test sessions to develop their cars. Alonso drove the MCL34 during a two day in-season post-race Bahrain test in April 2019 to develop tyres for Pirelli. No further runs were planned for him and McLaren focused on their current drivers. Alonso's ambassador contract with McLaren expired at the end of 2019, and was not renewed for 2020.

He is due to return to Renault for a third stint lasting for the 2021 and 2022 seasons with an option for 2023.

Alonso made his endurance racing debut at the 1999 24 Hours of Barcelona, finishing 10th overall in an Hyundai Accent he shared with Antonio García, Salvi Delmuns and the journalist Pedro Fermín Flores. He won the 2001 Race of Champions Nations Cup with the rally driver Jesús Puras and the motorcyclist Rubén Xaus for Team Spain, and was eliminated by Jeff Gordon of the United States in his group race a year later.

In 2018, Alonso raced in the 24 Hours of Daytona for the first time. He shared the No. 22 United Autosports Ligier JS P2 with Lando Norris and Philip Hanson, which finished 38th overall after mechanical issues affected his race. He later raced the full 2018 - 19 FIA World Endurance Championship alongside Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima at Toyota Gazoo Racing. Sharing the No. 8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid, the trio won the World Drivers' Championship after a season long duel with their teammates Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López with five race victories, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans in both 2018 and 2019. Alonso returned to compete in the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2019. He won the rain shortened race in a Wayne Taylor Racing - entered Cadillac DPi-V.R with Kobayashi, Renger van der Zande and Jordan Taylor.

He first drove the Indianapolis 500 in 2017. Alonso drove for McLaren Honda Andretti, qualifying in fifth position for the race and leading four times for a total of 24 laps before retiring with engine failure with 21 laps remaining while running in seventh place. He was classified 24th. He returned to the Indianapolis 500 for a second time with McLaren in 2019. An error converting inches to the metric system causing his car to scrape the tarmac surface on his first lap on track and incorrect gear ratios meant Alonso failed to qualify for the race. He is due to enter the Indianapolis 500 in 2020 for his third attempt at wining the race, this time with Arrow McLaren SP after an agreement with Andretti Autosport fell through.

Alonso entered the Dakar Rally with Toyota in 2020 following a five month training programme testing in Africa, Europe and the Middle East and driving a series of races to better himself. With co-driver Marc Coma, he finished the event in 13th position with a best stage finish of second place. A stop for repairs on the second stage and a roll on the 10th lost him several hours in the general classification.

Born in São Paulo, Massa is a Brazilian whose grandfather emigrated from Cerignola, Italy.

Massa began karting when he was 8 years old, finishing fourth in his first season. He continued in national and international championships for 7 years, and in 1998 moved into Formula Chevrolet, finishing the Brazilian championship in fifth place. During the following season, he won 3 of the 10 races and claimed the championship. In 2000, he moved to Europe to compete in the Italian Formula Renault series, winning both the Italian and the European Formula Renault championships that year. He could have moved to Formula Three, but instead chose the Euro Formula 3000, where he won 6 of the 8 races and the championship. He was then offered a Formula 1 test with the Sauber team, who signed him for 2002. He also drove for Alfa Romeo in the European Touring Car Championship as a guest driver.

In his rookie year in Formula 1, Massa was paired with 1999 International Formula 3000 champion Nick Heidfeld. He proved he was a competitive driver, but made several mistakes, including spinning off the track several times. Nevertheless, Massa scored 4 championship points in his first season, his best result a 5th place at the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya. He suffered a one race suspension late in the season, forcing him to miss the United States Grand Prix. Heinz - Harald Frentzen, Sauber's former driver drove for Massa in his place. Massa returned to the driver's seat for the Japanese Grand Prix, but Sauber confirmed that Frentzen would partner Heidfeld in 2003, leaving Massa without a race seat. Instead, he spent a year with Sauber's engine suppliers, Ferrari, gaining experience by testing for the championship winning team.

Sauber then re-signed Massa for the 2004 season. In 2004, he scored 12 of Sauber's 34 points, his best result was a fourth place at the Belgian Grand Prix. Giancarlo Fisichella scored the team's other 22 points. Massa remained at Sauber in 2005. Though he scored only 11 points, he outpaced his teammate Jacques Villeneuve through most of the season, and beat him in the drivers' championship. After Sauber was taken over by BMW, Massa was released and replaced by his former team mate Heidfeld. In 2006, Massa re-joined Ferrari, paired with Michael Schumacher.

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 the Nürburgring, finishing third behind Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso. He also set the fastest lap at Barcelona in 2006. Massa had four more podium finishes in 2006, and took his first F1 pole position and his first F1 win at the Turkish Grand Prix at the Istanbul Park circuit. His future position at Ferrari was secured when Michael Schumacher announced on 10 September 2006, he would retire from F1 at the end of the 2006 season. On 22 October, Massa won his home race at the Brazilian Grand Prix, making it the first time a Brazilian driver had won at Interlagos since Ayrton Senna in 1993. Massa finished the season third with 80 points, behind world champion Fernando Alonso and Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher.

Massa topped the time sheets on five occasions and set the fastest lap for four circuits during the 2007 pre-season testing. However, his 2007 season began with problems. At the season opening Australian Grand Prix, he suffered a gearbox problem during qualifying and required an engine change. Massa started the race from 22nd position due to these problems and a 10 grid slot penalty for the engine change. He employed a one pit stop strategy for the race and finished in sixth place. Massa's problems continued in Malaysia, where despite qualifying on pole position, the McLarens of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton overtook him at turn one. Massa ran off the track while attempting to overtake Hamilton, and lost two more places, dropping down to fifth place, where he finished the race. However, his season subsequently improved, as he won the Grands Prix of Bahrain and Spain, both from pole position, and finished third in Monaco. The race stewards at the Canadian Grand Prix disqualified Massa for leaving the pit lane while the red light was showing. After this disqualification, he won one more race at the Turkish Grand Prix, and finished on the podium at six more races, including a second place finish at his home grand prix at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Massa led much of the Brazilian Grand Prix, until yielding the lead to teammate Kimi Räikkönen, thus securing Räikkönen's world championship title. Massa finished the 2007 season ranked fourth in the drivers' standing with 94 points.

In October 2007, Massa extended his contract with Ferrari to the end of 2010.

Massa endured a terrible first race weekend of his third year at Ferrari. The team, surprisingly, looked off the pace as Massa qualified fourth and his race was even less successful, spinning off at the first corner of the first lap, on lap 26 he collided with David Coulthard and eventually retired due to engine failure.

Things brightened up in Malaysia as he qualified on pole, half a second clear of Räikkönen in P2, but the race itself did not go as well. Massa led from pole in the first 16 laps but was jumped by Räikkönen in the pit stops. He was still in contention for the victory battle and was chasing Räikkönen until he spun off on lap 31 while in second and retired.

After these two races people began to speculate that Massa had returned to his mistake prone ways of when he first entered F1, and that he could not handle F1 cars without the help of traction control (which had been outlawed from the start of the 2008 season), but the next race put those thoughts on hold.

Massa went into the Bahrain Grand Prix (where he won in 2007) with no points. He dominated the weekend, but Robert Kubica beat him to pole in qualifying. In the start, Massa beat Kubica even before the first corner. Räikkönen soon got up to second but he could not do a repeat of Malaysia. Massa was quicker and easily won by 3 seconds to open up his account.

In Spain, Massa qualified third behind Räikkönen and Fernando Alonso. He passed Alonso at the start and got up to second behind Räikkönen. He stayed on his teammate's shadow for the whole race, but there was no way he could pass or get ahead in the stops. He had to settle for second.

Massa took pole position at the next round at Turkey. He led from the start, and maintained the lead during the round of pit sops, but was passed by Lewis Hamilton's three - stopping McLaren at the start of the second stint. Hamilton pulled away, but he did not have the pace to take the lead that was needed to make his third stop and still come out ahead of Massa. Massa was a full 7 seconds up the road by then and took his second win of the season, and his third consecutive at the circuit.

At Monaco Massa qualified on pole, to his surprise (he had mentioned prior to the weekend that he did not like the circuit) and built up a 15 second lead over Räikkönen in the rain, before that advantage was wiped out by the safety car. Soon Räikkönen was out of contention with a drive through penalty. After the safety car went, Massa again started pulling away from Robert Kubica, but he ran up an escape road and lost the lead. Massa did jump Kubica in the pit stops but Lewis Hamilton's one stopping McLaren was by now way ahead of both of them. During the pit stops, Massa was fueled to the end of the race and was struggling, holding Kubica up. The track dried out and Massa had to pit for dries while Kubica took his second fuel stop at the same time and jumped him. Massa thus finished third behind Hamilton and Kubica.

In the Canadian Grand Prix, Massa qualified down in 6th place. In the race there was a safety car due to an incident involving Adrian Sutil. All drivers pitted, but Massa had to pit twice due to a delay with his fuel rig, which put him down to 17th. Massa then staged a fightback, charging back up to fifth place by the end of the race. Two of Massa's title contenders failed to finish after Hamilton collided with a stationary Räikkönen in the pit lane, allowing Massa to equal Hamilton and jump ahead of Räikkönen in the driver standings.

In the French Grand Prix, Massa qualified 2nd on the grid behind his teammate Räikkönen. Massa stayed some 3 to 4 seconds behind his teammate for the first half of the race. However, Räikkönen had a developing problem in his exhaust system, which allowed Massa to overtake him and win the race. This win gave Massa lead in the championship, 2 points ahead of Robert Kubica, 5 points ahead of Räikkönen and 10 points ahead of Hamilton. Massa was the first Brazilian to lead the championship since Ayrton Senna in the 1993 Formula One season.

In the British Grand Prix, Massa set the quickest time in 1st practice but immediately crashed. Things did not go any better during the rest of the weekend, as he had his season's worst qualifying down in 9th. In the wet race, while Hamilton dominated and Räikkönen finished fourth, things made a turn for the worse as he spun an embarrassing five times and finished last in 13th, over a lap down behind both his rivals. And so, at the end of the halfway stage of the season, Hamilton, Massa and Räikkönen were deadlocked on 48 points, with Robert Kubica only 2 points behind them.

The tenth round of the season was in Germany. Massa qualified 2nd behind Hamilton. He stayed second and was set to finish there until a crash involving Timo Glock brought out the safety car. Due to a miscommunication, Hamilton stayed out while the others, led by Massa pitted. However, when all the stops were over, Massa was behind Nelson Piquet, Jr. who had already pitted as he was on a one - stopper. Then, when a charging Hamilton came at him in the last 10 laps, Massa could not hold him off and subsequently finished third. After the race, Massa was 4 points behind Hamilton but 3 ahead of Räikkönen.

At the Hungarian Grand Prix, the McLarens who were looking dominant locked out the front row, and the best Massa could get was third. However, at the start itself, Massa passed both Heikki Kovalainen and pole sitter Hamilton on the run down to the first corner. He had the race in control from that point, and built up a five second lead over Hamilton. When Hamilton suffered a puncture, Massa was left 20 seconds in front and seemed to have victory in the bag, but with 3 laps remaining he suffered an engine failure and retired.

The twelfth round of the season, the European Grand Prix was in Valencia, Spain. Massa took pole position comfortably at this new circuit, and led right from the start. However, during one of his pit stops he was released early and almost touched wheels with Adrian Sutil who was already coming down the pit lane. Massa let Sutil go ahead so it only cost him a second, he won with ease, including setting the fastest lap. After the race, the stewards decided to fine Massa €10,000 for the incident with Sutil, but the victory stood and he was only 6 points behind Hamilton as well as being 7 ahead of Räikkönen. The race was Massa's 100th Grand Prix entry, making him to date the only driver in history to win his 100th GP.

The next race was Belgium, Massa qualified second behind Hamilton. He lost a place at the start to Räikkönen and stayed in third until lap 42 of 44 when Hamilton passed Räikkönen for the lead, just after cutting a chicane. The two had more battles throughout that lap, which resulted in the Finn crashing out, promoting Massa to second, despite the Brazilian dropping 9 seconds on the last lap. Hamilton crossed the line first, but was penalised 25 seconds by the stewards after the race for cutting the chicane, and so the win went to Massa putting him only 2 points behind Hamilton.

At Italy Ferrari's home race, the weekend was wet throughout, and Massa was off form, qualifying only sixth, but he had a great chance to take the championship lead as Hamilton was down in 15th. During the race, Massa got up to third, but dropped back down to sixth after he pitted once more than most others. He finished there, but as Hamilton only finished seventh, there was only a 1 point gap now between them.

Massa took pole position for what was the first ever F1 night race and inaugural Singapore Grand Prix, beating Hamilton's best time by six tenths of a second. He maintained the lead at the start and after 14 laps, was over 5 seconds ahead of Hamilton. However, a crash for Nelson Piquet, Jr. brought out the safety car, bunching up all the cars. It was then time for the first round of stops and during his stop Massa was given the green light to go, but the refueller was still refuelling the car. Massa left with the fuel rig attached and so had to stop at the end of the pit lane. The mechanics ran the whole length of the pit lane and finally removed the rig, but Massa was now last. He was then given a drive through penalty for an unsafe release, and was 15 seconds behind the rest of the field. His race ruined, he finished 13th and Hamilton who finished 3rd was now 7 points ahead of him.

At the Japanese Grand Prix Massa struggled in qualifying, having to settle for 5th on the grid. Meanwhile, Hamilton, his main rival took pole position. At the start there was an incident between Hamilton and Räikkönen, dropping the former to sixth. Massa stayed fifth, a place in front of his rival. On the second lap, as Massa was stuck behind the slower car of Jarno Trulli, Hamilton tried to pass him. The result was a collision, with Hamilton spinning down to the back, and Massa dropping down to seventh. He was given a drive through penalty for the incident, and found himself down in 14th. He made a charge up the order, setting the fastest lap on his way to getting 8th and one point. This became seventh after a controversial 25 second time penalty was issued to Sébastien Bourdais, who was judged by the stewards to have caused a collision with Massa whilst exiting the pit lane.

At the Chinese Grand Prix the following week Massa and teammate Räikkönen, despite strong performances at Fuji, struggled for pace the entire weekend, a situation which Stefano Domenicali (Ferrari team principal) could not explain. Massa qualified 3rd behind Räikkönen's Ferrari and title rival Hamilton. Following the pattern of the weekend Massa struggled to keep up with Hamilton, who raced away and maintained a comfortable margin. Whilst he eventually found some speed after the graining period on the medium compound tires, he was unable to catch Hamilton. As Räikkönen yielded second place to keep Massa's title hopes alive, Hamilton pulled his lead out to 7 points in the Drivers championship.

Massa remained optimistic stating "For sure we are in a difficult position but we know many things can happen in one race" and "Always when you play at home you usually play better", as the last two years he finished strongly at Interlagos (a 1st in 2006 and a 2nd in 2007). At the last race of the season, the Brazilian Grand Prix the situation for Ferrari was: Felipe Massa was seven points behind Lewis Hamilton, meaning that Massa had to either finish first or second to win, and Hamilton had to be outside the top 5 – the same position Räikkönen had been in a year earlier, when he won the championship.

Qualifying went well, Massa qualifying on pole, while Räikkönen qualified 3rd, just ahead of Hamilton. There was a rainshower just before the start of the race, and thus all drivers started on intermediates. Massa maintained the lead, and after 10 laps everyone had to change to drys on a drying track. Although the order was shuffled, Massa still led. He dominated the rest of the race, set the fastest lap and won by 13 seconds even though everyone had to change to intermediates after a late rainshower. Hamilton, meanwhile, struggled for pace. He was lying fourth for most of the race until the late shower, behind Massa, Alonso and Räikkönen. During the late shower, Timo Glock gambled on staying out on drys. He was fourth with Hamilton fifth. With three laps to go, Massa still led with Hamilton 5th. If the race stayed as it was Hamilton would win the Championship. Then Hamilton, having made a mistake, was passed by Sebastian Vettel, demoting him to 6th. Going into the last lap, if the order stayed as it was, then Massa would have been champion. Massa crossed the chequered flag and thought that he had won the championship. Hamilton was still sixth as he came up to the second - to - last corner, but then passed Glock who had just been overtaken by Vettel and who was struggling for grip on his dry tyres, and so this moved him into 5th place. Crossing the line Hamilton won the Drivers title by a just a single point. If he had tied points with Massa, by virtue of 6 victories to 5 in the season, Massa would have won the title.

Following the 2008 seasons F1.com called Massa "no more the nearly man" and emphatically stating he is "No more the Ferrari number two, Massa is now a contender". His maturity was also praised by Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo, commenting "I can only imagine how painful that moment must have been for him. However, I would like to give him my very special compliments, not only for dominating the running out there on the track in front of his fans, proving he is worthy indeed of the world title, but also for his maturity and sportsmanship off the track. He's a great champion and a great man."

During the course of the season, Massa had 6 pole positions – at the Malaysian, Turkish, Monaco, European, Singapore and Brazilian Grands Prix. He had 3 fastest laps – at the European, Japanese and Brazilian Grands Prix. He had 6 wins – at the Bahrain, Turkish, French, European, Belgian and the Brazilian Grands Prix.

Felipe Massa gave Ferrari's 2009 challenger – the F60 – its shakedown test at Mugello on 12 January 2009.

Ferrari confirmed that it would equip the F60 with KERS several days before the season opening Australian Grand Prix. Friday practice session did not begin so well for Massa as he recorded the 7th and 10th fastest times. Saturday qualifying fared little better as he lined up 7th (although was promoted to 6th as Glock's Toyota was disqualified). In the race the Ferrari's poor ability to handle its tires lead to their aggressive race strategy of super soft / medium / medium compounds paying little dividends after the first 6 laps (where the Ferraris moved to the front of the pack). Although Massa managed to stay in the top 3 for the first half of the race, the exceptionally quick graining of the super soft tires forced him into a 3 stop strategy. Before he was able to complete the race a mechanical problem forced him to retire.

In Malaysia, an error of judgement by Ferrari meant that Massa failed to make it through the first session of qualifying. In an interview to Rede Globo, Massa revealed that he and the team believed that his initial time was quick enough to proceed into Q2, and refrained from recording further times in order to conserve the car's engine. However, this was not the case, and Massa subsequently ended up in 16th for the race. In the race, Massa was classified as having finished in 9th, just outside of the points paying positions, after the race was abandoned on the 33rd lap due to torrential rain, poor light, and timing delays. Massa also failed to score in the next two races, retiring from the Chinese Grand Prix with electrical problems, and finishing well outside of the point scoring positions in 14th in Bahrain, due to a KERS problem and damaging his car's front wing on the first lap.

In Spain, Ferrari arrived with an upgraded car which attempted to fix many of the flaws present in the prior races. With the new aerodynamic parts, Massa managed to qualify in fourth place. He managed to maintain third position for a majority of the race before a computer issue showed the car as having less fuel than it should have, forcing him to conserve fuel in the final 10 laps, allowing Vettel and Alonso to cruise past, only for him to realise that the car had enough fuel for him not to need to conserve, after the race. The much upgraded car showed its pace by setting the third fastest time of the race after the two Brawns and in front of both Red Bull cars.

Monaco was another step in terms of improvement for the car as Massa finished fourth in the race, with fastest race lap. After qualifying a disappointing 8th, Massa produced a mistake free drive to net his first podium position of the season with a 3rd place at the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. After making a great start to 4th place, he used his fuel strategy while defending from other drivers and looking after his tires to take the final podium place.

On 25 July 2009, in the second round of qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, Massa was struck on the helmet by a suspension spring that had fallen from Rubens Barrichello's Brawn, on a high speed part of the track. He subsequently crashed head on into a tire barrier. Massa was airlifted to the ÁEK hospital in Budapest, where he underwent surgery in the area surrounding his left eye. His condition was initially described as "life - threatening but stable", but improved rapidly. Massa was discharged from hospital the following week and returned to Brazil. After further tests it was decided Massa needed a titanium plate inserted into his skull to strengthen it for racing. Ferrari consultant and seven time world champion Michael Schumacher was asked to take over Massa's race seat during his recovery, but his comeback was prevented by neck injuries sustained during a motorcycle accident earlier in the year. Ferrari test driver Luca Badoer was confirmed as Massa's substitute for the European and Belgian Grands Prix. After two races in which Badoer failed to score a single point, on 3 September 2009 Ferrari announced that Massa's place for the rest of the season would instead be taken by Giancarlo Fisichella who had signed a deal to be a Ferrari test driver for 2010 and had driven for Force India throughout the 2009 season.

As part of his return to Formula One Massa undertook a series of neurological examinations, co-ordinated by the FIA's medical delegate, in Paris on 10 October 2009. The successful completion of these tests led to the announcement by Ferrari that Massa would, from 12 October 2009 be driving a 2007 Formula One car in order to continue re-acclimatising to racing. He waved the chequered flag at the 2009 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Massa started the 2010 season with a second place qualifying place, and a second place finish in Bahrain behind team mate Fernando Alonso, despite having to save fuel in the last 22 laps.

At the Australian Grand Prix, Massa was appointed a director of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association. Massa qualified fifth for the race, which was marked by changeable weather conditions and ten non finishers. He finished third, largely managing to steer clear of the chaos. After the race, Massa commented cheerfully that it had been an unusually good start to the season for him. Third was his best ever finish at Melbourne. After a storming drive to 7th from 21st on the grid in Malaysia, he took the lead in the world championship. However, a disappointing ninth in China meant that he dropped back to sixth in the standings.

In Monaco, Massa was very quick during practice and qualified fourth. He got off to a great start and got alongside Robert Kubica, but had to yield the racing line at the first corner and finished the race in fourth, which promoted him to fifth in the championship with 61 points. The next race, the Turkish Grand Prix – at which Massa has historically excelled – ended for him in a disappointing seventh, although he at least managed to out qualify team mate Alonso and beat him in the race. Massa described the race as "boring"; he spent it battling with the Renaults of Kubica and Vitaly Petrov for the minor points positions. In Canada he qualified 7th and after an excellent start he spun Liuzzi 3 times and from there on had a poor race finishing 15th and a lap down.

At the 2010 German Grand Prix Ferrari were investigated for team orders as Massa took the race lead early, ahead of Fernando Alonso in second and Sebastian Vettel close behind in third. During the race these positions were maintained until Massa received instructions from Ferrari engineer Rob Smedley, saying "Fernando is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?". Shortly afterwards, on lap 49, Massa allowed Alonso to take the lead, and consequently to win the race. With Smedley then adding after the pass 'Ok mate good lad, stick with him now, sorry.' The incident strongly suggested that a team order had been made to Massa to let Alonso overtake, and race stewards agreed. Despite team boss Stefano Domenicali's denial, Ferrari were fined $100,000 for breaking Sporting Regulations and the matter was referred to the FIA World Motor Sport Council. Massa took further podiums in Italy and Korea, as he would eventually finish the season ranked sixth in the Drivers' Championship.

In June, Massa agreed to a contract extension until the end of the 2012 season.

Massa remained with Scuderia Ferrari in 2011, and again was partnered with Fernando Alonso. He drove his new car – the Ferrari 150° Italia – for the first time on 29 January 2011, undertaking a shakedown of the car at the Fiorano Circuit.

At the Australian Grand Prix, Massa endured a poor start to the season at what has traditionally been his bogey race. Qualifying eighth, over 0.6 seconds behind team mate Alonso, Massa managed to get ahead of Alonso and several other drivers at the start and ran in fifth place for a while, much to the frustration of Jenson Button, who had a much quicker car but was unable to pass him. A lack of pace dropped Massa down the order to an eventual ninth place finish, which became seventh after the Saubers of Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Pérez were disqualified.

The Malaysian Grand Prix saw a better performance from Massa, who qualified seventh and showed greatly improved race pace, particularly on the soft Pirelli tires. Massa again made a fine start to the race and ran ahead of Alonso until his first pit stop. A problem with a tire change cost him time but he finished ahead of Alonso in fifth, after Alonso damaged his front wing against Lewis Hamilton's right rear tire. In China, Massa improved again; at one point looking like challenging for the race win, before settling for sixth as Ferrari's two stop strategy did not suit the conditions. Despite this, he finished over fifteen seconds ahead of Alonso, and was pleased with his improved race performance. In Monaco, Massa crashed in the tunnel while battling with Hamilton. While at the Canadian Grand Prix, on the last lap, he overtook Kamui Kobayashi just before the chequered flag to finish in sixth place. Three fifth places followed in Valencia, Silverstone – after a late race battle with Hamilton – and at the German Grand Prix where Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel had a faster pit stop when they both pitted together on the penultimate lap, losing Massa fourth place. Massa added a sixth place finish in Hungary.

Massa out qualified Alonso for only the second time in 2011, in Belgium; but he fell from fourth to eighth in the race. Massa took another sixth place finish at the Italian Grand Prix, after he was spun round by Webber on lap five. Hamilton made contact with Massa for the third time in 2011, when attempting to overtake him for eighth in the Singapore Grand Prix. Hamilton punctured Massa's right rear tire with his front wing, an incident for which Hamilton received a drive through penalty. This followed an incident in qualifying where Hamilton lunged down Massa's inside, attempting to pass on an out lap, which led Massa to publically criticize Hamilton. Massa also went up to Hamilton in the post race TV interview area as he was about to start an interview with RTL Television, patted his shoulder, and sarcastically said: "Good job, bro." It was later reported that during the race Massa's engineer Rob Smedley sent a radio message to Massa stating "Hold Hamilton as much as we can. Destroy his race as much as we can. Come on, boy..." Hamilton and Massa collided at the next race in Japan, damaging Massa's front wing endplate, but he eventually finished in seventh place. After the race, Massa called for the FIA to take action on Hamilton. After finishing sixth at the Korean Grand Prix, he once again collided with Hamilton on the 24th lap of the Indian Grand Prix, for the fifth time this season, this time however with Massa being awarded a drive through penalty.

Despite his disappointing 2011, Massa remained with Ferrari for 2012. At the Australian Grand Prix, Massa qualified 16th – a second behind teammate Alonso, who qualified twelfth – for his worst qualifying result since the 2010 Singapore Grand Prix, and the first time he qualified outside the top ten since the 2010 Japanese Grand Prix. Massa gained six places on the first lap, running as high as eighth in the early stages of the race, but suffered badly from tyre degradation and fell down the order before retiring from the race after a collision with Williams driver Bruno Senna; both drivers later agreed that it was a racing incident. In the Malaysian Grand Prix, Massa qualified 12th and finished 15th, 1-minute 37 seconds behind his teammate Fernando Alonso, who won the race. This result put Massa 19th in the Championship, whilst teammate Alonso was leading on 35 points. Sauber's Sergio Pérez finished 2nd and there has been speculation linking Pérez to Massa's seat. Massa was thirteenth at the Chinese Grand Prix before he scored his first points of the season with ninth at the Bahrain Grand Prix. In Spain, Massa started sixteenth and finished fifteenth whilst teammate Alonso started and finished second, he also had a drive-through for ignoring yellow flags. He finished 6th in Monaco, and tenth in Canada, after spinning in the early stages of the race.

He finished 16th in Valencia, after Kobayashi made contact with him at the restart. A great weekend followed in Silverstone, as he qualified 5th and finished 4th, despite Alonso's pole and second place. Massa finished 12th in Hockenheim, where he hit Daniel Ricciardo on the first lap and as a result, removed his own front wing. Massa added a ninth place finish in Hungary. After qualifying 14th at Spa, Massa finished 5th in the race, earning 10 points and climbing to eleventh position in the driver standings, with the same points as Michael Schumacher. Massa took his best qualifying result of the season so far and got third place grid position at Monza. After a great start he made his way up to second position but finished the race in fourth after being passed by Alonso and Pérez in the closing laps. In Suzuka, Massa qualified 11th, but started 10th due to a gearbox penalty for Nico Hülkenberg. He made a great start after his teammate Alonso retired at the first corner of the first lap, and went on to finish in 2nd position, his first podium since the 2010 Korean Grand Prix. Massa qualified 6th for the 2012 Korean Grand Prix. He maintained 6th position after the first corner, and overtook Räikkönen on the first lap. After a few laps he also made a move on Lewis Hamilton, giving him 4th position. He had great pace throughout, with the possibility to overtake Alonso and even Webber, but because Alonso is fighting for the Drivers' Championship, Massa was told to hold station. On 16 October 2012, Massa signed a 1-year contract with Ferrari. This came as a result of an impressive string of results for the Scuderia, and means that Massa is under contract to race with Ferrari until the end of 2013. In India, Massa qualified 6th and finished 6th, despite having to save fuel and being hounded by Räikkönen the whole race. In Abu Dhabi, Massa qualified 9th but started on the grid in 8th as a result of Vettel's penalty. He ran as high as 7th until he spun when fighting with Mark Webber, but drove well and worked his way up to 7th again. At the US Grand Prix, Massa outqualified teammate Alonso for only the second time this year. But then Ferrari tactically broke his gearbox seal to move Alonso onto the clean side of the grid. This demoted Massa to 11th but he drove a storming race to finish 4th. At the final race of the season in Brazil, Massa again outqualified teammate Alonso for the second straight race to start 5th. At the start of the race Massa made his way up into 2nd place, only to fall down to 11th after some bad strategical decisions with the ever-changing weather conditions at Interlagos. Then thanks to a safety car, the field bunched up and Massa made his way through the field into 2nd but had to yield to title-chasing teammate Alonso. Eventually Massa finished 3rd on the podium in front of his home crowd to end a good second half of the season for him.

Massa started the 2013 season strongly with the new F138 at the Australian Grand Prix. He qualified fourth, one place ahead of teammate Alonso. He was able to stay very competitive, especially during the early laps of the race but finished the race in fourth place, two places behind Alonso. At the following race in Malaysia, Massa started on the front row of the grid, out-qualifying Alonso for the fourth time in a row. Massa had a poor start and bad first stint on the intermediate tyres resulting him falling down the order, but as the track dried out, he recovered places on the slick tyres and finished fifth. Three weeks later at the Chinese Grand Prix Massa qualified fifth, beaten by his teammate, who qualified third, for the first time in 5 races. In the race Massa got up to second place before the first round of pitstops, but he pitted a lap later than the other leaders, so he fell back down the order, so despite the early pace that he showed, only managed to finish sixth. At the next race in Bahrain, Massa qualified 6th but moved up to 4th alongside his teammate due to penalties for Webber and Hamilton. Massa was the only car in Q3 to qualify on the hard tyres indicating he was on a different strategy. In the race, the strategy gamble did not pay off as he did not run as far as he wanted and needed before the first stop. Along with two punctures in the race, this resulted in Massa finishing 15th. In Spain, Massa received a three-place grid penalty for blocking Mark Webber in qualifying, and started 9th. He made an excellent start, coming up to 6th, and then leapfrogged more cars during the pitstops, eventually finishing 3rd. His first podium of the year situated him 5th in the Drivers' Championship.

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. Massa scored an 8th place in Canada, and a 6th place in Britain. In Germany, he had a good start, jumping to 6th place, before spinning out on lap 3 with gearbox failure. In the Hungarian race, he struggled with an uncompetitive Ferrari, qualifying 7th and finishing 8th.

In Belgium Massa looked to be heading for his 1st pole position since the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix when he set the fastest time in wet conditions at the beginning of Q3 but the track dried and Ferrari had decided to leave Massa in the garage as they thought his time was good enough for pole so he dropped back to 10th, one place behind teammate Alonso. In the race Massa finished 7th behind Alonso who finished 2nd. In Ferrari's home race in Italy Massa qualified 4th, one place ahead of his teammate. He then jumped Red Bull's Mark Webber and Sauber's Nico Hülkenberg who qualified in a brilliant 3rd when the best he had managed all season was 10th in a slow car. Hülkenberg was one of the drivers who was in a chance of taking Massa's seat in 2014. Despite Massa's great start he moved over for Alonso who was race leader Sebastian Vettel's closest championship rival. Massa dropped to fourth in the pit stop phase after staying out longer than Alonso and Webber, but he fought back to challenge them for a podium, ultimately finishing in fourth place.

On 10 September 2013, Massa confirmed that he would be leaving Ferrari at the end of the season on Instagram and Twitter. The following day, it was announced that Massa's former teammate, Kimi Räikkönen, would be his replacement at Ferrari.

On 11 November 2013, Williams announced that Massa would partner Valtteri Bottas for the 2014 season replacing Pastor Maldonado.

He suffered an unlucky start to his campaign in Australia, when he retired after being hit hard by Kamui Kobayashi's Caterham. The string of bad luck continued in Malaysia after a team orders debacle, being caught out by the safety car in Bahrain, a botched pitstop in China and a collision with Sergio Pérez in Canada. However, at the Austrian Grand Prix, he took his first pole position since the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix and finished fourth. But the next two races, in Britain and Germany, resulted in first lap race-ending collisions with former Ferrari teammate Räikkönen and Kevin Magnussen respectively.

On 7 September 2014 it was confirmed that Massa, along with Bottas, would stay at Williams for 2015. On the same day, he scored his first podium for Williams, finishing third in the Italian Grand Prix.

On 9 November 2014 Massa took his second podium for Williams at the Brazilian Grand Prix as he finished third behind second placed Lewis Hamilton and winner Nico Rosberg. Massa ended Williams's competitive season on a high with what he described as his "best race of the year" at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. Although qualifying in fourth – one place behind teammate Bottas – he showed good pace in the whole weekend and finished a strong second after Rosberg's subsequent power-unit problems, even making a late but convincing challenge on race leader Hamilton in the final third of the race.

Massa's 2015 season started strongly, with a fourth place finish in Australia. After some further strong results in Malaysia and China, Massa had troubles in the next stage of the season. He suffered from mechanical issues both on the grid in Bahrain and in qualifying in Canada, meaning he had to fight from towards the back on each occasion, albeit eventually finishing both races in the points.

In Austria, Massa took his first podium of the year, a third-place finish, taking advantage of a delayed pitstop for Vettel. It was the fortieth podium of his career. Massa qualified third for the British Grand Prix but started well and jumped to first leading the early stages of the race. However, he could only finish fourth after being jumped by both Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel during the pit stops.

In Hungary, the race did not start well for Massa, as he was handed a 5-second stop and go penalty for being outside of the lines on the grid. In the end, Massa finished only twelfth, with his teammate right behind him. After a long summer break, the action returned to Belgium, where Williams seemed to be really quick. In qualifying, Massa achieved sixth position, which he maintained for the race, after some tyre issues in the first stint.

In the next round at Monza, Massa qualified fifth, but he made a good start to take third until the first round of pit stops, when he lost a place to the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg. After Rosberg's retirement on lap 51, Massa fought really hard to maintain the last podium spot, which he achieved. It was his second podium of the year, but it was a very emotional podium, in front of the tifosi.

In Singapore, Massa was running in eighth position until the first round of pitstops. On lap 13 and after a slow pitstop, Massa exited the pit lane and collided with Force India's driver Nico Hülkenberg. The incident was examined by the stewards. They eventually handed Hülkenberg a drop of three places for the next race. Massa suffered from gearbox problems and retired on lap 30.

The next race, in Japan, started well for Massa after qualifying a solid 5th in between the Ferrari pair. The race however was basically over before it even began as Massa collided with Daniel Ricciardo and caused a first corner puncture for both drivers, with Massa finishing 17th and 2 laps down, with the race resulting in Massa dropping ground in the championship fight for 4th place between himself, Bottas and Räikkönen.

The Russian Grand Prix, was a contrast in fortune for Massa. After a poor qualifying due to traffic he was only able to start 15th on the grid, due to failures from other cars and a last lap collision between his teammate Bottas and Räikkönen in a battle for the final podium position, Massa was able to cross the finish line a solid 4th place just behind the Force India of Sergio Pérez in 3rd.

In the following race, in Austin, torrential rain hit the race weekend and Massa qualified ninth. At the start, he spun and collided with his former teammate Fernando Alonso, before retiring due to a gearbox damper failure. The next race saw the return of the Mexican Grand Prix to the calendar after 23 years. Massa qualified seventh and in the race he finished sixth.

In his home event, in Brazil, Massa struggled the whole weekend with his car balance. Despite his setup problems, he qualified and finished the race in eighth position, before being disqualified from the race results as the stewards found that his right-rear tyre did not comply with the maximum permitted temperature ahead of the start of the race. In the last round of the season, in Abu Dhabi, Massa qualified in eighth. After a late overtake on Red Bull Racing driver Daniil Kvyat he finished his 2015 campaign in eighth position. He finished the season in sixth place in the drivers' standings, achieving two podiums in Austria and in Italy.

The 2016 season started well for Massa; after qualifying in a solid sixth place for the first race of the season in Australia, he drove a lonely race to finish fifth, collecting 10 points. In the second round of the season, in Bahrain, Massa qualified in seventh, 0.002 seconds behind his teammate. After an excellent start, Massa climbed up to second until the first round of pit stops, which saw Williams followed a conservative 2-stop strategy, using the medium compound. The strategy did not work out, and Massa finished the race in eighth, after being overtaken on the last lap by Red Bull Racing driver Daniil Kvyat.

The next round, the 2016 Chinese Grand Prix, saw Massa qualifying a disappointing eleventh, after a red flag prevented Massa from having a final run in Q2. In the race, Massa followed a two stop strategy, which helped him finish in a solid sixth place, after a long fight with Lewis Hamilton. Round 4, the Russian Grand Prix, saw Massa qualifying in fifth place, but he was promoted to fourth after Scuderia Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel was given a five place grid penalty after changing his gearbox. In the race, Massa stayed out of trouble on the first lap, and drove a quiet race to finish a solid fifth.

At round 5 of the season, the Spanish Grand Prix, Massa was knocked out in Q1, after losing time with traffic during his first run, and then failing to have enough time to go out again for a second run. It was the first time since Russia in 2014 that Massa was knocked out in Q1. In the race, Massa made solid progress, to finish in eighth after utilising an aggressive 3 stop strategy. The sixth event of the 2016 championship, the Monaco Grand Prix, did not start well for Massa as he crashed at Saint Devote in first practice. On Saturday he qualified in P14, but in a race that begun in wet conditions, Massa progressed to finish tenth and score one point, becoming the only driver at that point in the season to have scored points in every race.

At the next race, the Canadian Grand Prix, the race weekend did not start well for Massa, as he crashed in the first practice session, in turn 1. The DRS did not close under braking, leaving Massa with a lack of rear downforce under braking, which led to the crash. Massa had to run the remainder of the weekend missing some parts after the crash in free practice one. He qualified on the fourth row, in eighth place. In the race, Massa had to retire due to a water leak which resulted in an overheated engine. One week later, at the European Grand Prix, the first Formula One race to be held in Azerbaijan, Massa struggled during the practice sessions, but managed to qualify sixth. In the race, he suffered from rear tyre graining and finished in tenth place.

In the following 4 races, Massa failed to score any points, as most of his races were compromised by bad luck. In Austria, Massa had to start from the pitlane due to a front wing change following structural damage sustained in qualifying. In the race, and despite his pitlane start, Massa had climbed into the points before he was forced to retire with high brake temperatures on lap 63. At the next race, the British Grand Prix, Massa started outside the top 10. His race was compromised even before the start, as torrential rain hit the circuit. The Williams car historically did not suit the wet weather conditions, and despite his infallible drive in those treacherous mixed conditions, Massa finished in eleventh, just outside the points. In the following race, in Hungary, Massa struggled throughout the race weekend. In the wet weather qualifying, Massa qualified a disappointing eighteenth. As the track began to dry, Massa switched to the intermediates, but aquaplaned at Turn 4 and made heavy contact with the barrier, which brought his session to an end. In the race, Massa finished in eighteenth. Massa encountered steering rack issues on the way to the grid, with the steering wheel rack being too light on one side and too heavy on the other. The Williams crew worked hard to try and fix it before the start of the race. The issue was improved to a degree that Massa was able to race the car, but he was extremely compromised.

The last race before the summer break was held in Germany. Massa qualified in tenth. His race though, was compromised when he was clipped on the opening lap by Palmer's Renault which affected his car's pace. The issue could not be identified or resolved during the race, therefore he was forced to retire on lap 36. Next, in Belgium, Massa qualified in tenth, as he could do only one run in Q3. In his only effort, Massa locked up his tyres heading to turn 1 and his lap was compromised. At the start of the race, he managed to stay out of trouble and climbed up to fourth, but he could not keep the tyres in good shape and finished in tenth.

On 1 September 2016, Massa announced that he would retire from Formula One at the end of the season.

After announcing his retirement from Formula 1 after 15 years, Massa qualified eleventh for the Italian Grand Prix. After an aggressive start, which saw him overtake 3 cars, Massa finished his last Italian race in ninth. After a two-week break, the action returned to Singapore. In qualifying, Massa was caught by yellow flags, caused by Romain Grosjean and Jenson Button. He finished in P12, but he was promoted to P11 after Sergio Pérez was penalised for improving his time in Q2 under yellow flag conditions. In the race, Massa followed an unsuccessful 3 stop strategy, and despite running in the top 10 for the majority of the race, he finished in twelfth.

At the Malaysian Grand Prix, his whole race was compromised by extremely bad luck. Massa suffered a throttle issue, leaving him stranded on the grid as the formation lap started. The team were able to get the car going to enable him to start from the pitlane. However, just a couple of laps later he picked up a slow puncture and had to pit again. Massa was then down in 19th but drove a strong race to fight back to 13th at the finish. Next, in Japan, Williams decided to do a single effort in Q2, which saw Massa qualifying in twelfth. In the race, Massa lost 2 places at the start, from the Toro Rosso drivers, as he started on the medium tyres. After following a one stop strategy, Massa finished in ninth, just in front of his teammate. At the following race, in Austin, Massa qualified in ninth. In the race, Massa had an excellent start, gaining two positions at the first corner and running in sixth place. However, a virtual safety car was deployed due to Max Verstappen's retirement allowing Carlos Sainz Jr an advantage to move ahead into fifth place. In the final stint, in a battle for fifth, Massa and Fernando Alonso came together to Massa's detriment, dropping him to seventh and causing a puncture which resulted in a pitstop on the penultimate lap. The incident was investigated by the stewards, but no action was taken. Massa was able to maintain track position and finish the race in seventh, ahead of Sergio Pérez. This was the best result for Massa since the Russian Grand Prix.

In the next race, in Mexico, Massa qualified ninth. In the race, Massa made a strong start, going from ninth to sixth in the opening laps, and pitted for the medium tyre on lap 14. He ran in ninth for the majority of the race on the medium tyre, holding off a chasing Pérez who had newer medium tyres and DRS for much of the race.

In Brazil, Massa qualified thirteenth, as the cold conditions did not help him. In the wet race, Massa was making good progress in the treacherous conditions until he crashed out of what was expected to be at the time his last home Grand Prix on lap 47, prompting emotional scenes as he was cheered by fans whilst being given a guard of honour by other teams as he walked back down the pitlane.

On 16 January 2017, Massa rejoined Williams after Valtteri Bottas signed with Mercedes. In the first race of the season, the Australian Grand Prix, Massa qualified in seventh and finished in sixth. In China, he qualified in sixth. In the race, he struggled with the changing conditions to finish in 14th. Next, in Bahrain, Massa qualified in eighth and finished a strong sixth. In Russia, he qualified in sixth. In the race, he suffered 2 punctures and finished in ninth. Moving on to Spain, Massa qualified in ninth. In the race, he made a good start but made contact with McLaren driver Fernando Alonso and suffered a puncture. As a result, he finished out of the points, in 13th. In Monaco, Massa qualified only in 15th, as he was caught by yellow flags caused by Stoffel Vandoorne. In the race, he kept out of trouble to finish in ninth, collecting 2 points. In Montreal, Massa qualified a solid 7th. His race was short lived, as he was taken out by a spinning Carlos Sainz Jr. at turn 3. Two weeks later in Azerbaijan, Massa qualified in 9th behind his teammate Lance Stroll for the first time that season and ahead of the eventual race winner Daniel Ricciardo. In the race, Massa had a good start, avoiding the turn 2 collision between Kimi Räikkönen and Valtteri Bottas, climbing up to sixth. Massa showed good pace throughout the race and managed to climb up to third passing both Kimi Räikkönen and Sergio Pérez during the safety car restarts and almost pulled off a sublime move on Sebastian Vettel for second place, before the race was red-flagged due to large amounts of debris around the track. When the race restarted, Massa suffered from broken rear damper and had to retire from the race on lap 25. A race many people believed Massa could have won.

Massa recovered well at the next two races in Austria and Britain to finish both races in the points with a 9th and 10th place finish respectively.

After missing the Hungarian Grand Prix due to illness, Massa returned for the Belgian Grand Prix to claim 8th place, a result he then repeated in Italy one week later. Poor strategy calls in Singapore left Massa languishing in 11th place by the finish. Points were to come at the next 3 races for Massa as he finished 9th in Malaysia, 10th in Japan and 9th in the United States Grand Prix.

On 4 November he announced for the second time that he would retire from Formula One, at the end of the 2017 season.

At the Brazilian Grand Prix, his home race, he finished a strong 7th after overtaking Fernando Alonso on the fifth lap for 5th place but lost out to Daniel Ricciardo and Lewis Hamilton who were coming through the field.

2017 was a difficult year for Williams as a whole due to a lack of downforce (affecting tyre wear to an extent) from the car in addition to poor wet weather drivability as shown in races such as China where Massa started 6th but finished outside of the points. Williams began with a superior car to the midfield teams such as Force India but fell behind in the development race midseason.

Felipe Massa married Anna Raffaela Bassi on 30 November 2007, in São Paulo, Brazil. The couple's first son, Felipinho (Felipe Bassi Massa), was born on 30 November 2009.

Massa is a friend of Swiss watchmaker Richard Mille, who has dedicated several models of his watches to him (RM-005FM, RM-011).

Nicolas Todt, son of Ferrari's past team principal and current FIA president Jean Todt, is Massa's manager.

Though Massa supports Brazilian football team São Paulo FC, he also supports the Turkish football team Fenerbahçe that was formerly coached by Zico. On 24 August 2007, Massa said: "Zico was my childhood idol, Roberto Carlos is my best friend. I am a Fenerbahçe fan, because it is just like a Brazilian team. I love Turkey, as I won my first championship race in Turkey, it has special value for me."

Massa holds a charity kart race, Desafio Internacional das Estrelas (International Challenge of the Stars) every year since 2005. Notably, many active top level Brazilian drivers have competed in the event, such as Formula One drivers Rubens Barrichello and Nelson Piquet, Jr., drivers who competed in American open wheel events such as Tony Kanaan, Mario Moraes, Felipe Giaffone, Vitor Meira, Roberto Moreno, and Gil de Ferran, and Stock Car Brasil champion Cacá Bueno. In addition, Brazilian motorcycle racer Alex Barros has competed. Michael Schumacher and Luca Badoer joined the Brazilian contingent in 2007. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Jeff Gordon and Jaime Alguersuari have also participated.