Felipe Massa & The Food Delivery Story

As Felipe Massa prepares himself for what is undoubtedly the most important race of his career, the Ferrari driver has set the record straight regarding the pizza delivery story that always circulates around the Interlagos paddock at this time of year. According to Massa, he would deliver food to the then-Benetton team in exchange for a paddock pass – the food came from his ex-manager’s restaurant located in downtown Sao Paulo.

My ex-manager had some restaurants in Sao Paulo and he knew the people from Benetton. I asked him to find me a pass for inside the track, and he said, ‘You have a pass until Saturday but I need to give the team all the food, like pasta and banana.’ So I went to the track, brought the food to the team, and then I had the pass. I was 17 I think. Felipe Massa.

Interestingly, the chef who worked at Benetton back in the early nineties, who would see the young Felipe with his food, now works at Ferrari.

The chef at Benetton was Felice, who is our chef now. I remember the story of saying to him, ‘Maybe we will see each other in F1!’ He looked at this guy bringing the food and said, ‘Okay, okay, okay’.

A few years later I said to him, ‘Do you remember me?’ He said no. I explained what had happened and we became good friends. And now we work again at Ferrari. Felipe Massa.