Massa aims to make an impact

Felipe Massa's father owns a small plastics factory in Sao Paulo, making bumpers for trucks.

They might have come in handy a month or two ago, when Brazil's latest and youngest Formula One recruit gave his Sauber mechanics a headache with frequent crashes and scrapes in testing.

But the 20-year-old, from a city where driving is considered a contact sport and the spirit of Ayrton Senna is evident on every freeway, has made a more positive impact since his March 3 debut in Australia.

Massa will now start his home Grand Prix on Sunday as the only Brazilian -- of three on the grid including Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello -- to have scored a point so far this season.

Despite being slower than German team mate Nick Heidfeld, he finished sixth in Malaysia as Barrichello and others failed to last the distance.

The youngster also got noticed in the season-opening Melbourne race when he qualified ahead of Heidfeld, fifth at Sepang last weekend, in a rain-hit session.

"I think he's a future champion," retired French veteran Jean Alesi, who also raced for Sauber in a long and varied career, said before that first race. "I've watched him testing...and he's mad, fast and clever."

LAST TRIUMPH

Massa returns to his birthplace and the Interlagos circuit, once a temple to Senna but without a local winner since the late triple champion's last triumph there in 1993, hoping for more points.

Yet Massa is a man of a very different era to Senna, whose grave in the suburb of Morumbi is still an object of pilgrimage to Formula One fans.

Massa has taken on Senna's fitness trainer but, consistent with his youth and status as the leading light of a new generation, looks elsewhere for inspiration.

"Senna of course is the hero for everybody, you know, but when he died I was so young," the Brazilian said in an interview that might sound sacrilegious to some compatriots.

"I followed Michael (Schumacher) much more than Senna. I think that Michael is the best driver in the world, he is really incredible."

Massa also shares a favourite circuit with Ferrari's four times champion Schumacher.

"Interlagos is my home race and its going to be amazing to race there, but my favourite track is Spa," he said.

SCHOOLWORK OBSTACLE

Like many modern Formula One racers, Massa started out in karting at an early age -- while also driving his father's car in Sao Paulo long before legally allowed -- but found his schoolwork represented an obstacle:

"I was third in my first race (in the Paulista championship) but after that I didn't do three races because I was not doing well in school and my father took me out."

School, despite his mother's attempts to push him to university, lost in the end and he abandoned his marketing studies for full time racing in Europe.

Unlike some other compatriots, backed by family wealth, Massa said money was a problem.

"My father has a little plastics factory. He makes truck bumpers and plastic seats for buses but he is not rich," declared the slight Brazilian.

"I always had a big problem about budgets to race, a little sponsor here and friends.

"When I came to Europe for Formula Renault I came to do just six races in the Italian championship because that was all my budget.

"The championship is 10 races and I won my first two. Then the team helped me do all the championship and also the European championship."

KIMI COMPARISONS

Massa won both titles and never looked back, earning a test at Sauber after Finland's Kimi Raikkonen moved on to McLaren.

By all accounts, the results were sensational and Peter Sauber wasted no time in signing up a talent who had already been linked to Ferrari and had aroused interest in some other teams.

Comparisons with Raikkonen, who scored a point on his debut last year and stood out for his coolness, are inevitable but Massa tries to ignore them.

"I don't have Kimi in my mind," he said "But of course he was very good last year and he did a very good job. I would like to do the same."

The Brazilian has moved to Switzerland to be closer to the team and won more friends when he sent a Christmas card to everyone at the factory.

He has settled in well at Hinwil, even if driving in Switzerland lacks the thrill of Brazil.

"Driving in Sao Paulo is nice because there is that little bit of adrenalin," he said with a smile. Sunday's race should bring a whole lot more.