On 11 August 2009 it was confirmed that Badoer would return to Formula One racing after almost 10 years, to replace the injured Felipe Massa at the 2009 European Grand Prix in Valencia. Massa was injured during the qualifying session for the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix when a piece of suspension fell from the rear of Rubens Barrichello's Brawn GP car and struck Massa's helmet, fracturing his skull, knocking him unconscious and causing him to crash into a tyre wall. Michael Schumacher was set to replace Massa, but a neck injury Schumacher sustained in a German superbike test earlier in the year forced him to pull out. The BBC reported that Badoer was given the job as a "thank you for his commitment to the team". Badoer's ten years-wait is a little shorter than the ten years and three months between Jan Lammers's appearances at the 1982 Dutch Grand Prix and the 1992 Japanese Grand Prix.