Motorsport Heroes: Massa recalls the day he almost died

Today we hear from 11-time Formula 1 race winner Felipe Massa about his near-death experience during qualifying in Hungary in 2009.

Massa was struck on the crash helmet by the spring from the heave damper arrangement at the rear of Rubens Barichello's Brawn GP.

As the discarded black spring bounced along the track, Massa drove into it at high speed - knocking him unconscious and causing him to crash head-on into a tyre barrier.

"Exit of Turn 5, Rubens lost his third spring of his car, and I was coming around 155mph," says Massa.

"The spring just hit my head."

He continues: "I went to the hospital. They made quite an intense operation. I flew back to Brazil, and they did another big operation a month after [the crash].

"They put like a plate, here [Massa points to above his left eye], because I lost all the bone on this area.

"It took really a long time to get back to the car.

"You always know you want to go back to racing, but you never believe something will happen to you. When it happens to you, you just respect the life of yourself and also everybody in a big way."

Massa would miss the rest of the 2009 season as he recovered from his injuries but he, more than anyone, recognises that he was not only lucky but also thankful of the unrelenting progress made in motorsport safety.

The damage to his helmet helped form the basis for a decade's worth of research that is now a mandatory feature of each and every Formula 1 helmet, no matter the manufacturer.

Pandey, who wrote the multi award-winning Senna movie, interweaves the narratives of our Motorsport Heroes, telling their stories with both archive footage and first-hand testimony in the 111-minute documentary.

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