Felipe Massa has said that he considers himself “lucky” to have survived the accident which he suffered during the Hungarian Grand Prix. Many observers considered the Brazilian very unlucky to be hit by the spring from Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn that knocked Massa out cold, but the man himself does not agree.
“You need to think about luck in different ways,” Massa told the Guardian in a long interview.
“I was actually very unlucky with the spring in my face,” he says. “But I was very lucky as well. Every doctor said the same. If the spring had gone one millimetre to the right I would have lost my sight. One millimetre to the left and who knows? I could have been brain damaged. So I was very lucky. And this is more important because it is my life.”
Massa covered a number of topics in the interview, which can be read in full on the Guardian website. He said that the accident had not affected his love for the sport simply because he had no recollection of it happening.
“I first saw it when I got home on television just like you. But I had other accidents that disturbed me a lot more. When I lost the brakes in Monaco in 2002 it was a huge crash. And I crashed twice in Barcelona because I had a problem with my suspension and that was an accident that made me think. But this accident in Hungary is like something I never even saw. So my wife was only asking gentle questions, like, ‘You don’t think maybe … ?’ And I say, ‘No, I am racing again.’ My mother also knows me a lot. Sometimes she is looking at me and thinking but she knows not to ask.”
The 2008 runner-up was also asked for his prediction concerning this year’s world championship, and he made clear he was backing compatriot Rubens Barrichello.
“It’s difficult to talk about another driver. I know Jenson but I don’t know him so well. But I’m hoping for Rubens, of course. He’s Brazilian and he is my friend.”
Massa is to undergo surgery to insert a plate in his skull in the next few weeks, but hopes to be back racing next season for Ferrari. His accident appears to have made him even more determined to become world champion, a feat which narrowly eluded him last season.
