As Kaka prepares for life at Real Madrid, the football-loving Felipe Massa is excited about a new adventure for his close friend. As clubs continually pursued the talented midfielder, the transfer of his fellow Brazilian from AC Milan had often been discussed between the pair. It finally came to fruition this summer, but Massa has no desire to follow suit in his sporting field and leave his own Italian base.
With their proud history, winning tradition, financial backing and star drivers, Ferrari are often seen as the Real Madrid of motorsport. And just like Kaka wants success with the Spanish giants, Massa is hoping he will be world champion with Ferrari and remain with the team until he finishes his Formula One career. It was a path trodden by his former teammate and mentor Michael Schumacher, who enjoyed the best days of his career with the Prancing Horse, winning the title five times before retiring in 2006.
"I'm very happy here," says Massa, born in Sao Paulo like Kaka and a childhood fan of the legendary Zico. "I really enjoy my position and working hard with the team. I have a contract until next year, but I don't think about a move. "You never know what will happen, but, for sure, if you are 100 per cent happy in one place then you don't want to go. "Since I came here, everything has been going in a good direction. I race for Ferrari; we always work to have the best cars possible, to win the titles. It's a dream for many.
"It is difficult to always be on top, but if everything continues like it has, then I have no reason to move. If I finish my career with Ferrari, it will be a fantastic career and I will be very happy. "If you are in a team like Ferrari, it's difficult to see where it is good to move. Formula One is similar to football. If you move from a team, you always try to go to something better or somewhere that will make you happy. You look at the pros and cons. I'm very close to Kaka and I spoke to him about his transfer situation; when he was in doubt about going to Manchester City and then Real Madrid.
"Maybe Manchester City will be the top team in a couple of years, but when you move from Milan to Real, everyone can understand it. "It is something like going from Ferrari to McLaren. A top team to a top team. It doesn't matter how much he costs or the other players like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. For me, Kaka is the best player in the world. "There are a lot of similarities between us and the footballers, especially the way we work, the professional side and the pressure. They have the same too and we talk about how to handle it."
As Kaka and Ronaldo will now find following their moves to the Bernabeu, expectations will be high. Being part of an iconic team like Ferrari can also be a burden for a racing driver. Massa's performances have been constantly scrutinised since he replaced Rubens Barrichello and lined up on the grid alongside Schumacher for the German's final season in 2006. But he is a battler, constantly defying the critics who have speculated that he should make way for Fernando Alonso. Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion, is now the one whose future is in doubt as Massa out-performs him.
But this is no surprise to those who know him. It has been Massa's dream to be in F1 since he entered the paddock delivering pizzas for the Benetton team in Sao Paulo at the age of eight. It coincided with the start of his karting career and he has had to endure difficult times to fulfil his dream, adding a steely edge to his humble persona. "I had a lot of problems in my career," reveals Massa, 28. "I came from a middle-class family, but the time I came through and needed to find money to make a step forward, my father [Luiz Antonio] was in trouble. He had a plastics company, did bumpers for trucks and buses. He almost went bankrupt.
"He was pushing, giving me effort, but could not always give me the money. It was between the ages of 14 and 21 and that is a crucial time when I needed sponsors for karting and smaller categories in racing. "It was difficult to find the money and I was asking friends. Sometimes they could help, but sometimes they could not. I was thinking if you don't win the races or get the sponsors it is time to stop.
"It was not because I wanted to, but maybe I had to. I was racing for my future, knowing I had to win and do well just to carry on. It was hard to breathe at times and I had to look at other possibilities; the door was closing all the time. "In a way it was really difficult, but it was also fantastic. One of the reasons you cope with things like pressure and hard times is you have learned from this before.
"You cope because of your difficult times. You appreciate what you have and it makes you grateful. To be honest, footballers are usually from poor backgrounds. "When they are children, the clubs put them in an academy and team. It's a different life to what I had. I don't come from a rich family, but I had education and many things which maybe they didn't have. "Thank God I had talent which gave me a lot of opportunity and allowed me to conquer many things.
"I love what I'm doing and I want to carry on for many years. I hope the time I stop will be in a good direction - as a champion." As he chases this goal, Massa knows the pressure will remain always. When you are in a small team, you have the pressure, more from the team and yourself," he says, having started in F1 with Sauber. He was dropped by the team for 2003, where he then tested for Ferrari, but reinstated a year later.
"When you are in a big team like Ferrari, you have the pressure from your team, yourself, your country, the country of the team, the media, everyone. "You are always in the middle of these expectations. When you come to an important team you grow a lot. If you don't grow quickly, maybe you cannot handle it and fail. If you can handle it, then it means you can handle the pressure. "In my first year at Ferrari I had the pressure because no one expected me to stay. After that I had different pressure because everyone looked at me in a different way and said he deserved to be there.
"Now I need to prove that. It's always changing, this way of expectation. Nobody likes to be criticised, read bad things, but the bad things can also be positive. It shows you need to do this or that, and you have to react to this. "I have never had a problem with all this, but I cope in the right way and respond to it. Every race, you learn. Every year, you need to start from zero." It has certainly felt like starting from zero this season for Massa and his Ferrari team. New regulations saw a raft of changes for cars and while the Brawns and Red Bulls have profited, the major teams, such as Ferrari and McLaren-Mercedes, have struggled to compete.
Having been pipped by Lewis Hamilton for the world championship on the final lap of the final race in Brazil last season, this campaign has proved frustrating in another way. But Massa has seen signs of a recovery. A battling third place in Germany was his first podium this year, but Ferrari still await a victory. While the team have decided to focus on preparing the car for next year's challenge, Massa admits it will be a major disappointment if they do not win a race this season, the first time since 1993.
"We did not start the championship in the way we wanted and we have had to work hard to be competitive," he says. "It will be disappointing if we don't win a race. "But we have made a big step forward and now our car is better, and we cannot stop now. We need to improve even more and keep fighting for the top places. "We will work on the car, but I would like to win a race when everyone is on the track, at the same level. Motivation is the most important key to keep yourself in a good level and I am motivated for now, and the next season.
"I still want to be a world champion; that never changes a single moment. That's my dream and my target. I felt I deserved it last season. My championship was perfect, but it didn't happen. "But I know I can do it. You just need the right time, the right moment to do everything together. Luck, ability, the little details. I hope it will come for me." "If it happens next year, it could cap a dream double for Brazil with the football team chasing glory at the World Cup in South Africa.
"If things happen like that, I don't know if I can survive inside [points to his heart]," he adds. "It's a dream. You always need to have dreams and goals. Like the football team, I want to make my country proud." With Massa's wife Ana Rafaela expecting their first child later this year, it would be easy to question whether he will adopt the same single-minded approach next season. Former drivers have often said you are prone to take less risks once you become a parent. But Massa disagrees and says he will miss the birth of his son if it coincides with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Nov 1. He has had a glimpse of the track and would love to be its first winner.
"It was one of the most incredible experiences I ever had, to see all the facilities," he says. "It will be the most incredible race. "It excites just as much as an old circuit like Silverstone, even more when you see what you can do there, when all the facilities are in place. "If I think back 10 years ago, I had no idea where Abu Dhabi was. The people are very nice and open there and there will definitely be an exciting atmosphere.
"My baby is due in November, but if he is born at the same time as the race, I won't miss it. Definitely not. "It is a big moment in my life, but I am a professional; that's my job. "We are going to have good people looking after him and my wife. I'm very excited about being a father for the first time. It's a very strange feeling, but a good feeling. "I have an idea it will be one of the most incredible experiences in my life. But we are here to work and maybe we will arrive in Abu Dhabi with the possibility that we can win. I would like that."
akhan@thenational.ae