Massa ready for Spa return after illness

Felipe Massa will be back in action this weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Franscorchamps.

The 36-year-old Brazilian missed the final race before the summer shutdown due to illness. He was replaced at short notice by Williams development driver Paul di Resta.

But the official Formula 1 website has confirmed that Massa has been given the all-clear to return to the cockpit.

It is standard procedure for a driver who has missed a race on health grounds to get approval from the FIA medical delegate before taking part.

It's understood that the feelings of nausea and dizziness he experienced after practice sessions in Hungary were due to an inner ear issue.

But thanks to the four weeks of downtime, Massa is now fully recovered and looking forward to getting back to work. He's especially pleased to be fit in time to race at one of his favourite circuits.

Felipe Massa's helmet gets a special design for Spa

"Spa is one of the best tracks in Formula 1," he said this week.

"I think it will be incredible to drive there with this new car, with more downforce.

"Eau Rouge will feel like a straight but so many other corners will also be amazing to drive.

"I am also going to be wearing a special ‘Joy of Racing’ helmet designed by a great Spanish artist called Kenor," he added. "It will look great, and a lucky fan will also get the chance to win it thanks to Martini.

"I’m really looking forward to a great race at Spa."

If Massa were to experience any recurrence of his illness, then di Resta will be on hand and on standby to take over the race seat again.

Di Resta had just 90 minutes notice that he would be taking part in qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix. He split the Saubers and started from 19th position, and ran as high as 15th during the race.

It meant the race was the first since the 1982 San Marino Grand Prix not to feature a Brazilian driver on the grid.

Unfortunately di Resta was forced to retire with an oil leak on the FW40 with ten laps remaining.

"It would have been nice to finish, without the oil leak," the Scot said after his unexpected return to F1. "But overall I'm not too dissatisfied with where I was given how little running I'd had."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.