Born in São Paulo and raised in Botucatu, Massa began his career in karting at age eight. He won national and regional championships before progressing to junior formulae in 1998. Massa won several championships in Formula Chevrolet and Formula Renault, before winning the Euro Formula 3000 Championship in 2001 with Draco. He signed for Sauber in 2002 to partner Nick Heidfeld, making his Formula One debut at the Australian Grand Prix.
Despite scoring several points finishes in his rookie season, Massa was replaced by Heinz-Harald Frentzen in 2003 and became a test driver for Ferrari. Massa returned to Sauber the following year, remaining with the team for two seasons before signing with Ferrari in 2006 to partner Michael Schumacher.
Massa took his maiden Formula One win from pole position at the Turkish Grand Prix in 2006. He became the first Brazilian driver since Ayrton Senna to win his home Grand Prix at the Brazilian Grand Prix that same year. In 2008, Massa took six wins in his campaign but lost the World Drivers' Championship by one point to Lewis Hamilton on the last lap of the last race of the season. Details later emerged of race-fixing at the Singapore Grand Prix—commonly known as Crashgate—that Massa claims lost him the title, taking legal action against the FIA in 2023, which was to go to trial in 2026.
At the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix, Massa was seriously injured during qualifying when a suspension spring from the Brawn BGP 001 of Rubens Barrichello struck his helmet. He was replaced by Luca Badoer and Giancarlo Fisichella for the remainder of the 2009 season. Massa returned to Ferrari in 2010 to partner Fernando Alonso. After struggling for form over the next three seasons, Massa left Ferrari at the conclusion of his 2013 campaign, having contributed to two World Constructors' Championships.
Massa partnered Valtteri Bottas at Williams in 2014, taking his first pole position in six years at the Austrian Grand Prix amongst several podiums. He took multiple podiums the following season with Williams, before announcing his retirement at the end of 2016. The abrupt retirement of Nico Rosberg, however, saw Bottas move to Mercedes and Massa postpone his retirement to the end of the 2017 season. He achieved 11 wins, 16 pole positions, 15 fastest laps and 41 podiums in Formula One.
Outside of Formula One, Massa competed in Formula E from 2018 to 2020 for Venturi. He has competed in the Stock Car Pro Series in Brazil since 2018. He also entered the Porsche Carrera Cup Brasil in 2020 alongside Lico Kaesemodel. In kart racing, Massa hosted the charity Desafio Internacional das Estrelas race until 2014, and was the president of the Commission Internationale de Karting from 2017 to 2022.
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