Felipe Massa to retire from Formula 1

The 35-year-old WIlliams driver is out of contract at the end of the year, but had previously indicated he hoped to stay on.

Speaking at a press conference alongside deputy team principal Claire Williams, Massa joked: "I'm more nervous now than all my race starts.

"After 27 years of my racing career, since I started karting and with 15 years in F1, this will be my last season in F1."

The news comes from the same venue where Massa's mentor Michael Schumacher announced his initial retirement from F1 10 years ago.

"I choose this place because 10 years ago Michael announced his retirement," Massa said.

Massa won 11 races for Ferrari between 2006 and 2008 finishing overall runner-up to Lewis Hamilton in the 2008 world championship, and joined WIlliams in 2014.

During his time at Ferrari Massa survived a life-threatening head injury during Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying in 2009, ruling him out for the rest of that season.

"I'm so proud to have been part of this team," said Massa, of WIlliams.

"Williams had a difficult moment and then we managed to get amazing results in the last two championships."

Claire Williams added: "This is a very sad and emotional day. For Felipe I know this was a big decision. He was so nervous.

"He is what we love at Williams, a true gentleman.

"We were so lucky he joined for 2014. We were a team in dire straights, we needed someone to come and be part of the team."