Felipe Massa frustration about 2008 is justified, but his options are limited

This article was last updated on August 18, 2023

Canada: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…
USA: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart…

Introduction

Felipe Massa caused a sensation on Thursday by formally threatening legal action for missing out on the Formula 1 world title in 2008. A closer analysis of Renault’s nefarious plan in Singapore and the chances that the Brazilian will get what he wants.

Understandable Frustration

Suppose you are a Formula 1 driver and miss out on the world title by one point, and in the final race you even thought you would become champion. It later turns out that another team deliberately crashed a driver in an earlier race so that his other driver could still win. You led that race. And with those missed points you would have become champion.

It is completely understandable that Felipe Massa has been frustrated for years about the course of events in 2008. A season always has failures, victories, bad luck and luck. But the situation that year in Singapore was different. Led by Renault team boss Flavio Briatore, Nelson Piquet Jr. crashed deliberately to cause a safety car situation. Teammate Fernando Alonso had just made a remarkably early pit stop and took the lead thanks to the cunning plan, because all the gaps disappeared and many drivers had to make a pit stop.

The two-time champion went on to win thanks to the nefarious scheme, which took Felipe Massa’s lead, possibly the win and almost certainly a big points score. Lewis Hamilton, title contender and eventual champion, finished third to take six points.

Failed pit stop is irrelevant

The fact that Massa eventually finished thirteenth was due to his failed pit stop and a penalty that followed. In the panic caused by the safety car situation, the Brazilian drove away with the fuel hose still in his car (refueling was still allowed at the time).

A mistake by the team, but otherwise irrelevant to the case: without Renault’s straits, Ferrari would not have made that pit stop at that moment and that panic would not have arisen. Briatore and co. illegally influenced the course of the race, so anything that happened after Piquet’s deliberate crash is irrelevant; it was all a result of Renault’s scheme.

Nevertheless, the result of the race is fixed, and the chance that anything will change is nil. There are hardly any legal possibilities to appeal against a result so many years later. That can be done in the days after a race, but once the prizes are handed out at the end of the year, that opportunity is completely lost.

Should Mosley have intervened in Ecclestone in 2008?

But why is Massa now still threatening with a case? Although there were already suspicions of intent on the day of that particular race, the high word only came out when Piquet Jr. lost his seat at Renault a year later. He then revealed that he was ordered by Briatore to crash in Singapore.

Renault’s Briatore and Pat Symonds were banned from Formula 1, although that sentence was later overturned on appeal. Symonds is currently technical director of the royal class. He does this under CEO Stefano Domenicali, who was Massa’s team boss at Ferrari at the time. It remains a small world.

Those penalties were therefore imposed in 2009, at a time when nothing could be done about the results of 2008. That is why the words of former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone earlier this year were painful. He said in an interview that he and FIA president Max Mosley already knew about the actual events in Singapore back in 2008.

They could then have declared the game void, losing Hamilton his six points for third place. Massa would have been champion then. The fact that the Formula 1 management has not done so is, according to the Brazilian, a “conspiracy” against him.

‘Millions in lost income and bonuses’

There are some hooks and eyes here. The now 92-year-old Ecclestone left a comment on Thursday Reuters know that he doesn’t remember an interview about 2008. The interview was conducted by F1-insider.com. Massa hopes that the German medium still has an audio recording of the conversation with Ecclestone. Two other key witnesses – then FIA president Max Mosley and race director Charlie Whiting – have died. At first glance, this does not appear to be a solid foundation for Massa’s case.

But the knowledge that he should have become champion in 2008 continues to gnaw at the Brazilian. Not that Massa is now hungry for attention, but his position would have been different. Naturally, his lawyers point to lost income as a result of the loss of title. That probably also includes a title bonus from Ferrari. In the sent letter van Massa mentions tens of millions in lost income and bonuses, although it is also admitted that it is not clear how much money is involved.

It seems that this is what the 42-year-old Massa is after: financial compensation. The regulations of the FIA ​​are open to everyone to see, and there is nothing in them that will help you if you want to undo a result from fifteen years ago. It is also striking that the case is a project of Massa itself, and not of Ferrari. The Italians clearly have less to gain from it, even if it were not sixteen, but fifteen years ago that the Scuderia won a drivers’ title.

Manufactured victory Alonso was not even necessary afterwards

If the case really goes to court, it will undoubtedly be followed with suspicion by Hamilton. Although the seven-time champion seems to be able to count on not having to hand in his first title. Hamilton and his team McLaren obviously played no part in Renault’s plan – the Briton is not to blame. The same seems to be true for Alonso, who insists he was ignorant of the malicious intent behind his victory.

The pressure to perform was high within Renault, which feared a departure from the French car manufacturer and thus the closure of the racing team. A victory was needed, and Alonso took it in Singapore, albeit ‘manufactured’. Ironically, the Spaniard also won the next race in Japan, on his own. In retrospect, cheating in Singapore was superfluous too. Renault therefore did not leave Formula 1 (at that time).

Conclusion

At present, Formula 1 in London and the FIA ​​in Paris are examining Massa’s letter. If there is no “serious answer” in two weeks, then it becomes a real case.