Don't forget how good Massa was

The date is August 3, 2008. Felipe Massa lines up third on the Hungarian Grand Prix grid behind the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen.

Overlooking Turn 2, out-of-sight of the first corner but armed with Kangaroo TV, the sight of Felipe Massa locking up while attempting to go around the outside of Hamilton at the start seems certain to preface the Brazilian running very wide and losing several positions.

The TV signal cuts out and when the field streams into view a Ferrari leads. Obviously somehow Kimi Raikkonen has taken the lead after Massa slid wide. But no. There's the familiar yellow/green helmet of the Brazilian. Somehow, he has pulled it off.

A look at the replay reveals Massa did run fractionally deep, but barely. He made the corner and came out of Turn 1 ahead of Hamilton. It was a ballsy move and one that set up a certain victory had his engine not failed with three laps remaining.

It stands out not only because it was a glorious move, but because the loss of the TV signal showed how the perception of Massa and the reality had diverged. He was seen as a wild man, an erratic performer. For him, a big lock-up while attempting a pass at the first corner indicated certain disaster, while for the likes of Hamilton it would be interpreted as another trademark late-braking special.

Schumacher took Massa under his wing © LAT

But Massa had evolved, a process that did not just start in 2008. During his Sauber years, he showed a good turn of speed and was a bit ragged, but he learned a great deal alongside Michael Schumacher at Ferrari in 2006.

The following season, with Raikkonen widely predicted to crush him, Massa drove very well. This is often forgotten: until a rear suspension failure put him out of third place early in the Italian GP, Massa was in the championship hunt. He had gone into the race ahead of his team-mate in the points and was running in front of him at Monza.

After a dire start to the season, notably in Malaysia where he felt he was too soft at the first corner, letting Alonso take the lead, Massa claimed a vital win in Bahrain. But the following race at Barcelona marked a watershed in his career.

Massa claimed pole position, but Alonso, then driving for McLaren, drew alongside him on the run to the first corner. The Spaniard turned in, fully expecting Massa to back out. But the Brazilian refused to. The resulting contact left Alonso to plough through the gravel.

It was a key statement of intent. After what happened in Malaysia, this was Massa announcing himself as a serious title contender. Alonso did not take him so lightly thereafter.

"It was a little bit tight for both of us but I was just inside and I went for it so it was quite a risk for both of us," he said after the race. "But looking at the competition and everything, the first corner is important. I just didn't want to lose out like I lost out in Malaysia."

Alonso learns Massa isn't always a soft touch at Barcelona in 2007 © LAT

He went on to win the race, his second on the bounce, to move to within three points of the championship lead. Massa had proved he was not there only to be Raikkonen's support act.

Massa did step up a level and did so again the next year. There was truth to the image of him as a wild man and in '07 the rough edges had been exposed at times. But in 2008, the errors were, while not eliminated completely, far rarer. Fewer wide moments, fewer lock-ups, fewer of the small errors at critical junctures that compromised his final result.

While there were races that went disastrously in 2008 - spinning at the start in Malaysia, five rotations in the wet in Britain (although in his defence, the Ferrari was an evil-handling machine in damp conditions), clouting Hamilton on the first lap in Japan a few corners after being forced off the track by the McLaren driver - for the most part he enjoyed a classy season.

In Monaco, his pole position lap was a triumph of mind over matter. Exhorted by his engineer, Rob Smedley, to carry more speed through Sainte Devote, Massa set aside the fact he did not believe the car had the grip to pull it off and went for it. The prize was a lap 78-thousandths of a second faster than Raikkonen. He likely would have won the race but for a safety car robbing him of a lead before his first pitstop.

It was far from the only great moment for Massa. In all, there were six victories. A couple relied on a little luck, notably in France where Raikkonen led but dropped back with an exhaust problem, and Belgium where he inherited victory after Hamilton was penalised.

But in addition to his lost triumph in Hungary, he was also robbed of victory in Singapore by a combination of the timing of the safety car, brought out deliberately by the Renault team, which ordered Nelson Piquet Jr to crash, and the traffic light problem that led to him being released from the pits with the refuelling hose still attached.

Prior to that, Massa was firmly on course to win in Singapore. That was thanks to a stunning pole lap, a massive 0.664s faster than Hamilton and another highlight of his season. Combined with his dominant win in Valencia, it was a fine season for Massa on the streets. Only safety cars denied him a street track triple crown.

Interlagos 2008: the day Massa was champion for a few seconds © XPB

The mark of a champion is an ability to deliver under pressure and that is exactly what Massa did in the season finale at Interlagos. He went into the weekend seven points behind Hamilton and knew he had to win to have any chance of the title. He qualified on pole position and controlled the race beautifully. There were plenty of chances to throw it away, notably when it rained, but he utterly dominated.

When he crossed the line, Massa was in position to win the title with Hamilton down in sixth place. But the McLaren driver passed slick-shod Timo Glock at the final 'real' corner to grab the fifth place he needed. Massa won himself many friends that day and carried himself with tremendous dignity in defeat, something that will stand long in the memory of all who witnessed it.

It's not that Massa was the worthy champion of 2008. Hamilton also starred and deserved his sensational victory (for the record, Robert Kubica was probably the driver of the season), but the way the Brazilian drove, he would not have been out of place among the list of F1 title-winners in the way that today's Massa would be.

His driving style fitted well with the understeer balance of the Bridgestone tyres. His technique was simple but very difficult to perfect, relying on carrying good speed into the corner and keeping minimum speed relatively high. It was not a classical technique and he was hardly the most precise of drivers, but it worked.

He carried his form into the 2009 season. Driving a poor Ferrari, he did a fine job in the first half of the season and had just claimed his first podium at the Nurburgring when he suffered his life-threatening accident in qualifying at the Hungaroring.

When Massa returned, he outqualified new team-mate Alonso at the first attempt, but it was an illusion. His 2010 campaign was reasonable and he would have won at Hockenheim a year to the day after his accident had he not been, controversially, ordered to let Alonso past, but subsequently he struggled.

There are other circumstances that played their part in his struggles, including the oversteer tendency of the Pirelli tyres that was less compatible with his style and the challenge of having Alonso as a team-mate.

The only time that Massa has looked like a winner in recent years was Germany 2010, where he was ordered to move aside © XPB

But it's impossible to escape the conclusion that while he did make a full recovery from his crash, he potentially lost that final fraction of a per cent that differentiates a decent driver from one capable of gunning for regular race wins.

It's not his fault, it's not fair, but in the three-and-a-half seasons since he has, aside from that day at Hockenheim, never been a serious victory threat. Eight podiums in 70 races tells its own story.

That's why when the name Massa crops up in the future it will always be 2008, specifically that day in Hungary where he showed just how far he had come as a driver, that comes to mind.

Some perpetuate the myth that Massa would have been ill-deserving of a championship and somehow lucked into coming within a few seconds of winning one that day in Brazil.

While not one of the all-time greats, he would have been far from being the least impressive driver ever to win the title. For there were days in 2008 when Massa was untouchable and he was regularly outperforming Raikkonen in the same machinery. No mean feat.

Many appreciations of him will focus on his character, how he generally treated adversity with a cheery demeanour, his professionalism and willingness to be a team player. He has been all of those things, but never forget he was a damned good driver too even if the Massa we see today is not the one of his early years at Ferrari.

For that reason, as Massa embarks on his seven-race farewell tour for the prancing horse he deserves a huge amount of respect.