It has been revealed that Felipe Massa will receive the prestigious Trofeo Lorenzo Bandini this year, thanks to his string of excellent performances for Scuderia Ferrari last season; his debut year with the Italian team which culminated with a highly impressive and polished win in his 'home' Grand Prix in Brazil.

The Brazilian Ferrari driver will be awarded the acclaimed trophy during a special event to be held in Italy on May 6, the weekend before this year's Spanish Grand Prix. Born in 1981 Massa has always impressed F1 observers with his natural turn of speed, although a number of big crashed let the jury out until last year. He rose rapidly through the junior single-seater formulae, winning the International F3000 Championship in 2001, before making his full F1 debut in 2002 with the Sauber-Petronas team, at a time when he was just 20-years-old. The next year (2003) he joined Scuderia Ferrari as an official F1 test driver, before returning full-time to the F1 World Championship in 2004-05, again with Peter Sauber's Swiss outfit. Last year he joined Ferrari as a Grand Prix driver, lining up for his first full year with the Maranello team alongside the undisputed modern-day racing legend Michael Schumacher.

Margherita, the widow of Lorenzo Bandini, who was also a Scuderia Ferrari driver and who was killed in 1967 during a dramatic race crash, normally presents the trophy to the chosen recipient at an awards ceremony traditional held in Bandini's home town of Brisighella. The event usually takes place on the same weekend as the San Marino Grand Prix at the nearby Imola circuit, but the race's absence from the calendar this year has forced a change of plan.

Italian racing driver Lorenzo Bandini, who was born in 1935, made his motor racing debut in 1957 at the wheel of a Fiat 1100. His racing career saw him make a rapid rise through the ranks.
 

He made his F1 debut at the Belgian Grand Prix with Scuderia Centro Sud in 1961, before joining Ferrari a year later. A second career spell with Ferrari beckoned but he was tragically killed during the 1967 Monaco Grand Prix when he crashed his Ferrari at the harbour chicane, the car busting into flames and causing severe burns that he would succumb to. During his racing career he won one Grand Prix (the 1964 Austrian Grand Prix) while he also achieved much success in sports cars, winning the Le Mans 24 Hours (1963), the Targa Florio (1965), and the Daytona 24 Hours (1967).

The Trofeo Lorenzo Bandini honours people for their dedication to motor racing and has been supported by the Formula One community since it was first presented in 1992. It is sponsored by the small town of Brisighella, where Bandini was born. Massa is following in famous footsteps, previous winners of the prestigious trophy during the last decade-and-a-half include former Ferrari F1 World Championship winning driver Michael Schumacher and the Brazilian's 2007 season Ferrari team mate, Finn Kimi Raikkonen, as well as the reigning Spanish F1 champion Fernando Alonso, former Canadian F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve, and the current Fiat Chairman and Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo.