Grapevine: Massa clarifies food delivery past

Felipe Massa has set the record straight on his food delivery boy past - after revealing the true story of his first visit to the Formula One paddock at Interlagos almost a decade ago

The Brazilian is heading to his home event in Sao Paulo this weekend gunning for the world title - and in totally different circumstances to how he first visited the F1 world as a teenager.

Massa's visit to Interlagos in 1999 has become a popular tale in the paddock - although recent versions of the story have suggested that he was simply a pizza delivery boy for the teams.

But ahead of the most important race weekend of his life, Massa has revealed that his food delivery task was simply in exchange for getting a paddock pass.

"My ex-manager had some restaurants in Sao Paulo and he knew the people from Benetton," explained Massa.

"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."

Massa' s visit to the track brought him into contact with Benetton chef Felice Guerini - who now cooks food 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."