Felipe Massa is all smiles on return to Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as F1 world title dream remains

A return to form for Felipe Massa at Williams has him smiling, writes Graham Caygill.

Felipe Massa, centre, finds himself back in the mix this season, challenging for podium spots with the Williams team. Ahmed Jadallah / Reuters

It was easy to focus on Lewis Hamilton’s elation as he stood on the top step of the podium at the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last year.

But another feel-good story was just to his right.

A competitive second-place finish, in which he had pushed Hamilton hard, confirmed the renaissance of Felipe Massa as a top-tier F1 contender.

“It was a really good race,” said the Williams driver as he recalled the 2014 event, where he cut Hamilton’s lead from nine seconds to two in the final laps.

“Maybe, if I was two or even three seconds closer to him when I started that final stint, it would have definitely been very possible to win, but it was good to be up there fighting.”

In the past, winning was a regular occurrence for Massa, 34.

After joining Ferrari from Sauber in 2006 he won 11 races in three years and missed out on the 2008 title by a single point.

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What followed were a series of setbacks. He suffered a fractured skull at the Hungarian Grand Prix in 2009 when debris from another car struck his helmet at high speed.

When he returned to racing in 2010 he found himself struggling against teammate Fernando Alonso, who had become the focus of the team.

Massa’s past successes seemed almost forgotten. No further wins came for him.

Since leaving Ferrari to join Williams at the start of the 2014 season, the good times have returned.

There was a podium finish in Italy last season, but the race at Yas Marina was the first time he had been in the mix for a victory.

The smile, which had often been missing from his face in his latter years at Ferrari, has returned to the paddock.

“I still have a big challenge to race,” he said. “I still have the challenge to be competitive, to work with the team, to improve the car, and I think when you have a team that treat you as important, that makes it a pleasure.”

The move has rejuvenated him, he said.

“It has been like a restart,” he said of joining Williams. “Some things were not going the way in the way I want in my last years at Ferrari.

“I needed a restart. And I feel younger and more motivated with this change.”

Massa carried his encouraging form into 2015, twice finishing on the podium with third-place finishes in Austria and Italy.

He is sixth in the drivers’ standings.

This is his 13th full season in F1, and he has not given up hope of being the first Brazilian to win the world title since Ayrton Senna in 1991.

“For sure, that is the only dream I still have, to win the championship,” he said. “But I also had a dream to have a nice family and I have a fantastic family, a nice son, so I cannot complain about anything.

“I am a very happy man, so even if for whatever reason I cannot win the championship, I can say I have nothing really to regret.”

Massa is passionate about driver safety, particularly after his own scare in 2009.

The topic was brought back into focus this year in July after Jules Bianchi died of the head injuries he suffered in the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, when he crashed into a recovery vehicle.

Former F1 driver Justin Wilson also died after being struck on the head by debris during an IndyCar race in the United States in August.

Massa says F1 and other single-seater series should consider closed cockpits.

“I don’t think that Jules’s accident would change anything by having a closed cockpit,” he said. “But for sure Justin Wilson, yes, and maybe myself, yes.

“So it is something that I am really in favour of.

“I don’t know if closed is the right decision, but to improve the safety around the head is something that we definitely need to do.”

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