Felipe Massa has used Twitter to tell the world that he is leaving Ferrari at the end of the season – paving the way for a Kimi Raikkonen announcement.
The Brazilian was expected to have a meeting with Luca di Montezemolo at Maranello tomorrow, but he appears to have pre-empted that or been given permission by the team to do so.
He wrote: “From 2014 I will no longer be driving for Ferrari. I would like to thank the team for all the victories and incredible moments experienced together. Thank you also to my wife and all of my family, to my fans and all my Sponsors.
“From each one of you I have always received a great support! Right now I want to push as hard as possible with Ferrari for the remaining 7 races. For next year, I want to find a team that can give me a competitive car to win many more races and challenge for the Championship which remains my greatest objective!”
As noted earlier today, Massa could in effect do a swap with Raikkonen and end up at Lotus, perhaps helped by the presence of sponsor Richard Mille, a company close to his manager Nicolas Todt.
Adam Cooper F1 
If he goes to Lotus, means Hulkenberg misses out again.
Or does he.. mahaha!
Unless he has a load of sponsorship money he’ll likely be in Brazil next season.
Nice guy, but I won’t morn his departure. He’s largely wasted the seat the last four season. Recovering from the accident and having the team focus on Alonso clearly hasn’t helped, but I also think the way F1 has unfolded since 2009 has gone against his strengths. Even in 2006-08, he only really shone when it came to leading from the front; 12 of his 14 wins saw him leading from the first corner to flag. The other two were inherited and ‘unimpressive’ (Kimi car issues, and Hamilton post-race penalty) .
Chances to do that have been few and far between since the 2009 rule shake-up. On the rare occasion when the Ferrari has been best, such as Germany 2009, he’s still troubled Alonso. But I see the odds against the situation being right for him to ever have another run at the WDC, and it’s time they took a gamble on somebody who might be able to race from the pack.
This has been coming I have to admit. He has not been the same driver since Hungary, and when he did show signs of his old self, he had to move over and let Alonso through.
My previous post should say 9 of his 11 wins.
As a fellow Brazilian, I’ll miss Felipe. I reckon it hasn’t been easy for him. He has had a track record of bad luck. I haven’t watched as many races as I used to. When I did and Felipe just had another “bad luck” episode it just felt like deja vu.
By reading what folks have been saying about him and Alonso, I can’t help but have the feeling that as in Brazil soccer is known that people only really care to recall who became Champion. Even second place is better forgotten.
It has always been hard for me to love Ferrari since barely any Brazilian fared well on the team. Rubens was always falling short of Schumy. And now Felipe of Alonso. The rules that Ferrari employs to get the best driver always on top can mean even more “bad luck” for their second drivers.
Not to make excuses. I think some drivers like Alonso and Hamilton are unique in their skills to overtake. Many other drivers including Felipe don’t have the same ability level. To be behind really causes most drivers to stay behind.
I’d like to recall what Felipe said this weekend about taking the tow of the driver in front, and how it was better to stay a little behind from 3s to 4s when it worked better. Less than that and you could lose time. It’s comfortable for drivers to just stay put than to risk everything in trying to overtake. When one mistake can mean a crashed car and more expenses to the team and fewer points at the end of the year.
I figure the time is OK for Ferrari to part ways with Felipe in that Fernando is already able to give nearly all of the input that the team needs after the last four years of experience with the team.
I’m also curious about what will happen going forward. It appears to me that the only thing worse than having Ferrari winning all the time, would be for RBR to continue to win all the time. F1 fans are really pissed off in that regard. They expect something to happen, so no wonder they are shaking up all the trees they can.
Cheers. Keep up the good work.
Wishing you a successful 2014 in F1, Felipe!!
Hope he gets a lotus seat next year
I still can’t get my head around this proposed move by Kimi. The wages for both drivers will be astonishing – more sponsors? Kimi hates promotional work!
Ferrari paid Kimi to leave….all is forgiven? Ok, probably
Alonso is ecstatic about having a fast team mate……..that is not a compliant servant?
Knowing how crazy F1 can be, maybe this will come to pass. If it does, I can’t wait the fireworks. An unflappable Finn and a hot-headed Latin who can be prone to outbursts if he feels he has been wronged.
If Lotus really wants to make a splash have them go get Alexander Rossi from Caterham. Putting an American on a top team like Lotus will ensure their surival.
Only if Mr. Rossi can produce results.
FELIPE MASSA DONATES ANOTHER PODIUM TO FERNANDO ALONSO AND FERRARI AT MONZA F1 GP 2013 AND GETS PROMPTLY FIRED FORM 2014’S TEAM
Ferrari have really shown themselves to wear red in terms of behaving like a prostitute in their appalling and denigrating treatment of their enormously talented Felipe Massa. The never ending completely unsporting and unprofessional biased and unfair support of the inferior Fernando Alonso in every GP, it has to be admitted, simply because the Spaniard, who has a quite unique track record of illegally breaking any and all rules to gain an unfair advantage, pays for the privilege with a large sponsorship package from the Spanish bank Santander. OK so now you must be think,…’So that’s why he is talking about a prostitute and prostitution….!? From Crashgate to Gearboxgate, to ‘move over Felipe, Fernando is faster than you’, to a never ending series of ‘pitgates’ ensuring Alonson benefits over Massa in the pits….Felipe Massa has stoically taken all these insults in a way which has shown what a special man he is, but also what a unique fabulously talented F1 driver he is. Ferrari should be truly ashamed of themselves along with the legion of sycophantic paid commentators: prostitutes again, I suppose…? I for one, will greatly miss watching and looking forward to watching this truly inspiring driver at the wheel of a Ferrari. Salutations Felipe, Rhuairi MacLeod
A spirited defence of Felipe! He’s a great guy but I think even his biggest fans will admit that he’s had a good run and lasted a lot longer than the hard results would suggest. Now he has the biggest cance of his life to show us what he can do. He might get a 2014 Lotus that proves to be faster than the Ferrari anyway…