Massa Announces Retirement
Felipe Massa has announced that he will be retiring from Formula 1 at the end of the 2016 season – making his announcement at the news conference earlier today, in Monza before the Italian Grand Prix this weekend.
“This is my last season in F1, I will enjoy my last eight races in the sport as much as I have always done and I just want to say Thank You to everybody who is around me and who has followed my career.“
Continuing to say – “I decided to do this here, because of him (Michael Schumacher) – he was a big feature on my career.“
The Italian Grand Prix is where Michael Schumacher announced his retirement 10 years ago which at the time, meant Massa would be staying at Ferrari.
Racing for 27 years and with a career in Formula 1 for 14 years, it’s a sport which has seen the driver win 11 Grand Prix’s.
Over the past few weeks there had been growing speculation about the driver and his future in F1 and at the press conference he revealed that he “had taken the decision to quit several months ago” and the he had “not held any talks with any teams” including his current team – Williams.
Massa’s final race will be the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix which will be his 250th race in the sport – a lovely way to bring in his retirement.
His current team-mate, Valtteri Bottas is expected to remain at Williams for the 2017 season with Felipe Nasr now being a firm favourite to takeover from Felipe Massa. This pushes Jenson Button out of the way for a return to the team despite Williams saying “Jenson would be a good fit for the team“
Ending the press / news conference Massa said – “I am very proud to have raced in F1 for so long, I achieved a lot more than I expected. Even if I lost the championship by a point, I am very proud of my career and what I have achieved.“
The Formula 1 Girl
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