“Mentally Broken” – Felipe Massa Opens up on Teaming up With Fernando Alonso

From 2010 to 2013, Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso were teammates at Scuderia Ferrari. Sadly, those were the worst four years of his F1 career. Suffice to say, the Brazilian hated playing second fiddle to the Spaniard, especially when he was in a prime position to win.

When he spoke in a Q and A session on Instagram, Massa spoke about life at Scuderia Ferrari. A follower asks him about his best competitor and he named Fernando Alonso higher that Michael Schumacher. Although the German has seven world titles to his name, Alonso left an indelible mark on him. Though he confessed that the Spaniard always got everything handed to him.

”The best and most hardened teammate was Alonso. I don’t want to beat Michael on that, but Alonso was without a doubt just as talented and fast. Schumacher had the power within the team when I came in and felt like an older brother. However, being with Alonso was the same, but he managed to get everything to his advantage”, Massa says.

The two became teammates in 2010 and after a victory in the first race for Alonso, the proportions in the second race immediately became clear. ”It was raining in Australia and we were in third and fourth place. Fernando stayed behind me and then the team asked me to leave him in front. I refused because it didn’t make any sense, but you’re mentally broken.”

Fernando Alonso broke Massa mentally

As Alonso remained with the Italian marquee, he soon began to exercise his authority. Naturally, Felipe Massa didn’t like that, but he was helpless. He said, ”It wasn’t fair and then he mentally tried to crack me so I would finally do what he wanted. In Germany, I ended up leaving him, because at that time it was the right choice”.

”I suffered a lot as Alonso’s teammate. Not necessarily because the work wasn’t fun and I got on well with him, but within the team he managed to get everything behind my back, so he always got his way. With Kimi I never had this problem and so I had to work hard on this in my fight with Alonso’.’

After suffering enough, Massa left for Williams at the end of 2013, where he finished his career.