Massa to return from retirement with Williams?

After an emotional retirement from Formula One, the Brazilian could be set to return to the sport for 2017.

The 35-year-old announced his retirement from Formula One when it looked like there wouldn’t be any worthy race seats for the 11 time Grand Prix winner.

Williams were all set to partner Valtteri Bottas with rookie Lance Stroll for the 2017 Formula One World Championship.

Meanwhile Massa was considering other options in motorsport, not yet ready to retire from racing altogether but not willing to drive for one of the teams towards the back of the grid.

But the shock retirement of Nico Rosberg, just days after clinching the 2016 Formula One World Champions has perhaps thrown Massa a lifeline back to F1.

Mercedes have limited options to replace Rosberg, with Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel both locked into water tight contracts with Mercedes and Ferrari respectively.

Whilst Daniel Ricciardo, Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz are all locked in within the Red Bull Racing stable.

Pascal Wehrlein is plan B to partner Lewis Hamilton for 2017, but Valtteri Bottas is plan A.

For Williams, they do not want to lose their only experienced driver and not replace him with someone with experience, going into a season full of regulation change.

But Mercedes are offering a good financial deal to release Bottas from his contract.

According to a report by the BBC: ‘Wolff has approached Williams with a proposal that he gives them a major reduction in their engine bill – said to be in the region of ?10m euros (£8.4m); more than half the total fee – in return for releasing Bottas.

That’s a starting offer, so any improvement is likely to prove difficult to turn down.

But Williams need a suitable replacement and at short notice, they are hard to find.

Sky Sports believe that Williams have already opened talks with Felipe Massa over a return.

He would be ideal as he wouldn’t need to learn about the team having had years of driving for Williams, he’d help develop the car and is a consistent if not spectacular driver. For Williams right now under these circumstances he is the perfect replacement for Bottas.

But will he take the chance to come back after such an emotional goodbye just a few weeks ago?