Ferrari driver Felipe Massa arrived back in Europe earlier this week, having spent the longer than usual break since the last race, at his home in Sao Paulo due to the dfact that there was a three week between races.

“It was an enjoyable time, but rather quiet, as I just wanted to enjoy spending some time with my wife, who is pregnant, expecting our first child in November,” he explained. “Perfect timing from us for the baby to arrive conveniently after the end of the Formula 1 season! Everything is going well and it is a nice feeling knowing I am soon going to be a “papa.”

Apart from that, Felipe took part in a karting race with some friends, nothing serious, just some fun with the Brazilian star driving a small 125 cc kart.

“Well, with an extra week in between the Grands Prix I had to get some racing done!”

From there he went to the team’s factory at Maranello where he took part in the presentation of a new car, the Ferrari 599 XX, which is used in a similar programme as the FXX one, where owners can actually contribute to the technical development of this “laboratory car,” running it with full factory support at various race tracks.

“I did quite a few laps with it on the Fiorano track and, as my brother and father are here with me, I was able to give them some exciting moments in the passenger seat. It’s a great car and fun to drive,” Felipe explained.

He then travelled to Germany on Wednesday where he took part in a football match for the Nazionale Piloti team together with some other F1 drivers and Michael Schumacher. The game took place in Wiesbaden where they were playing for charity.

Then, yesterday, he arrived at the Nurburgring and is looking forward to getting behind the wheel of the F60 once again.

“The layout of this track should suit it better than the fast corners of Silverstone,” he said. “A lot will depend on how we get the tyres to work and even if we have some new components that Kimi and I will be trying on Friday, it is impossible to say at this stage what we can expect from the weekend. The first half of the season was very hard to predict and I don’t see why it should be any different as we go into the second half.”