The Ferrari driver finished second by one point and is now taking the Federation to court over Piquet’s accident. But Ecclestone’s words make noise: “We had information to investigate, we decided to protect sport from a big scandal”
Singapore Grand Prix 2008, 17 years later. A race that has gone down in history, which returns to knock, insistently, at the doors of Formula 1. Felipe Massa, a former Brazilian driver with a great-grandfather from Puglia, raced with Ferrari that year and was one of the candidates to win the World Championship. In Singapore he even started from pole position. La Rossa won the Constructors’ World Championship, but Felipe finished second behind a young Hamilton in McLaren. Based on this, he dragged FIA and Fom (Formula One Management) to court, suing them for the so-called Crashgate. Requesting compensation of 82 million dollars, equal to 71 million euros. The accusation? That he missed the World Championship because the Singapore GP, considered irregular, was not cancelled.
the gp
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Sunday 28 September 2008: for the first time in the history of Formula 1 the races take place at night. Massa is second in the general classification, in the midst of a head-to-head with Lewis Hamilton, who occupies second place on the starting grid behind his pole position. But, after fifteen laps, here’s the bad thing: the Renault driver Nelson Piquet Junior crashes, spins and the Safety Car enters. His partner Fernando Alonso is the first, taking advantage of the situation, to return to boxing. Before the race he had declared that the only way he could win, starting from 15th position, would be the safety car. Moral of the story? The Spaniard triumphed in Singapore ahead of Rosberg and Hamilton. Massa finished 13th, not even a point, and the final World Championship standings saw him second at 97, behind Hamilton at 98. The Singapore GP was decisive, after which the suspicion immediately spread that Piquet Jr’s crash had been decided by the team itself to favor Alonso. If it had been cancelled, Massa would have finished first in the general classification: 97 against 92.
the investigation and the accusations
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In 2009 the news began to circulate in newspapers, and it was established by an FIA investigation that the crash had indeed been “caused on purpose”. Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds, who were in charge of Renault, were disqualified. And although the two were later acquitted, the fact remained. And it is back in vogue, effectively supporting Massa’s cause, also thanks to some words that Bernie Ecclestone had uttered in an interview in 2023: “Felipe Massa was robbed of the 2008 title. We should have canceled the Singapore race. Max Mosley (at the time FIA president, ed.) and I had information to investigate what happened, but we decided not to do so to protect the sport from a big scandal. I’m still sorry for Felipe”. Naturally, after 17 years, the title cannot be reassigned, as it was lost by the Brazilian Ferrari on the last corner of the last lap of the season in his Brazilian GP: Massa won the race, but Hamilton’s last-minute overtaking of Toyota’s Timo Glock allowed him to gain the decisive one-point advantage. And today the Brazilian, in some way, wants to be repaid.
the background
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Some details revealed by him in court on Wednesday 29 October contribute to supporting Felipe’s theses. Regarding Jean Todt, Ferrari team manager at the time (not involved in the lawsuit, he chose to distance himself): “He said he was sure that Nelsinho had crashed intentionally. I didn’t believe him because I know that Todt doesn’t like Flavio Briatore and they had a personal rivalry. But, when I met Briatore at a lunch in Bahrain in 2009 and asked him if he had asked Piquet to crash on purpose, he denied it. I thought he was probably lying, from the way he asked me answered.” There was no shortage of tension in the Cavallino team, given that Massa publicly declared in 2009 that Alonso, who had already signed with Ferrari for 2010, knew about his Renault teammate’s voluntary accident.
the cause
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The hearing, which began on Tuesday 28 October in London, ended today 31 October, but will not have an immediate outcome. Massa’s accusations and requests are clear. How clear is the FIA’s position: “Mr Massa, a multi-millionaire Brazilian citizen and resident, has filed a claim for compensation in this jurisdiction of England and Wales based on an alleged breach of the supranational regulations of the FIA, a private international sports organization based in France, in relation to events which occurred during and around the Singapore Formula One Grand Prix over 17 years ago, on 28 September 2008. However, Mr Massa’s claim for compensation blatantly overlooks a number of errors made by himself or by his team, Ferrari, during the Singapore GP and other GPs, which contributed to his second place in the general classification of the drivers’ championship that season”.
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