Brazilian driver Felipe Massa knows a thing or two about racing for Ferrari.
Massa started his career in F1 with Sauber before being signed by Ferrari in 2006.
He joined the Scuderia during Michael Schumacher’s final season with the team and just after he had relinquished control over the Drivers’ Championship to Fernando Alonso after winning five titles on the bounce.
Massa saw first hand just how impressive the seven-time world champion was before being trusted alongside Kimi Raikkonen to try and continue his legacy.
The Finn won the 2007 championship the year after Schumacher retired, before Massa cruelly missed out to Lewis Hamilton in 2008.
Hamilton overtook Timo Glock on the final lap of Massa’s home race to deny him his one and only chance to win an F1 championship, but the 43-year-old still went on to race nearly 150 times for the Scuderia before seeing out his career with Williams.
After going wheel-to-wheel with Hamilton for all those years, Massa is now eagerly waiting to see how Hamilton gets on at his old team.
Hamilton’s move to Ferrari caused chaos in the driver’s market and even helped a new Brazilian – F2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto – make his way onto the grid.
In an interview with Estadao, Massa has explained one problem Hamilton could face at Ferrari that he and even Schumacher couldn’t overcome during their time in F1.
Felipe Massa says Lewis Hamilton’s age could become a problem at Ferrari
Talking about Hamilton’s upcoming move, Massa said: “If you asked me if I would hire Hamilton, as the head of Ferrari, as a driver, yes, I would, without a doubt.
“Because of the talent he has… He is one of the most incredible drivers in F1. But because of his age, maybe not.
“Because of his age, if you look at the sport, age matters.
READ MORE: Felipe Massa explains why he thinks Lewis Hamilton is in decline ahead of Ferrari move
“And we have to understand how much age is weighing on him in this situation, or not.
“I’m talking about myself, these days I need to train much more physically than I used to.
“It’s much harder to recover physically after a difficult race or an intense training session. Age takes its toll in some areas, that’s normal.
“Age is something that has weighed negatively on several drivers, as it did for Schumacher.”
Lewis Hamilton needs to prove plenty of people wrong during 2025 Ferrari season
Hamilton has shown signs of self-doubt this season that may slightly worry some Ferrari fans.
He’s been comprehensively beaten by George Russell in their qualifying head-to-head and was outscored by his teammate in the championship.
Ralf Schumacher is unsure Hamilton will see out his Ferrari contract, although it’s hard to believe the 39-year-old won’t want to try and continue their strong end of 2024 and then test out their new car for when the regulations change the following year.
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Hamilton tends to perform best when people are questioning his ability and has never been a stranger to having to justify his decisions, as he did when he first joined Mercedes from McLaren.
Ferrari are in a much stronger position than the Silver Arrows were when he arrived at Brackley in 2013.
Maranello already have plans on how to honour Hamilton if he wins them a championship and it would be the perfect way to end the sport’s most illustrious career.
