The uproar over the “rigged” 2008 Singapore Grand Prix will just not go away. At stake is the true identity of that season’s drivers’ championship which saw Felipe Massa champion for around half a minute. Having won the race the Brazilian driver watched on the big screen as his rival Lewis Hamilton made up a place on Timo Glock and scored the extra point required to given him his first F1 title.
As Martin Brundle said when reviewing the race, “a championship is never won in one race” and the events earlier in Singapore certainly had a bearing on the final outcome and who was crowned champion.
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The race in the city state was marred by cheating from Renault who instructed their junior driver Nelson Piquet Jnr to crash during the race after his team mate Fernando Alonso had made the first pit stop.
Massa then suffered from a botched pit stop and finished the race outside the points while Lewis Hamilton claimed six points towards his final tally which saw him awarded the drivers’ title.
Comments made earlier this year from the then F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone stated that both he and the then FIA president ax Mosley together with FIA race director Charlie Whiting all knew before the season end that the Singapore Grand Prix had been rigged.
The regulations stated that the race should have been struck from the results that year and had that been the case Massa not Hamilton would have been F1 champion.
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But Ecclestone and Mosley conspired to cover up the affair and as Bernie later claimed this was to protect the image of Formula One.
Since Ecclestone made these claims, legal representatives of Felipe Massa have been pursing documents from that time to build a case for the record books to be re-written. This of course would mean Hamilton would become just a six times champion while Brazil would have another title winning driver.
Massa’s representative have requested Ferrari throw their weight behind the calls for the history books to be revisited, but as yet their petition has been met with silence. That year Ferrari had a new team principal replacing Jean Todt who had brought unprecedented success to the Scuderia.
That Ferrari boss, Stefano Domenicali, snow the CEO of FOM owned by Liberty Media who control the rights to Formula One.
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Following the initiation of the claim from Massa’s lawyers, the current FIA president revealed he was happy for Felipe to seek justice, but warned it would be difficult to achieve.
“I answered him saying ‘It’s up to you, you do what you think is right for you, but the FIA will have to protect themselves.” said Mohamed Ben Sulayem.
“We have our rules, we have our sporting rules, and our statutes, which say a certain period after that you can’t [do anything]… but people can challenge that. It’s not the book of God.”
Part of the problem for Massa is the then FIA president Max Mosley has since died and now Bernie Ecclestone is reneging on the claims he made earlier this year when promoting his book.
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Hamilton refused to be drawn
Lewis Hamilton refused to be drawn on the issue when asked for his thoughts following this year’s F1 Sumer break.
“I’m really just focused on here and now,” Hamilton told assembled media. “[I’m] helping a team get back in the championship race and am not really focused on what happened 15 years ago.”
As the 2023 season began its final two races, Massa revealed as yet he has had no conversations yet with Hamilton over his current action.
“No, we haven’t had any communication. Everything that we are doing is not against Lewis. I mean, I really respect Lewis as a driver for everything that he’s done, he’s one of the best drivers in the history of Formula One.
“So many records, with many titles. But what I’m doing is against the result of a manipulated race. At the point in the race where the manipulation happened, I was leading, I was first in that race. So it’s nothing against Lewis.”
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Massa then pleaded with Hamilton to give his version of the events and cited the British drivers’ persistent push to overturn injustice
“I really like Lewis as a driver and he’s doing a lot of things for justice, so many different kinds of justice in the world. I think, one time, he will need to speak and to talk about the situation. I think it’s pretty clear I’m not doing anything against him.”
Jean Todt had retired as Ferrari boss and was yet to become FIA president when Singapore “crashgate” occurred. Now the Frenchman has decided to speak on the matter, claiming he has no skin in the game.
“I won’t get into the controversy, but it was very hard for him psychologically,” Todt told Italian publication La Stampa.
“Maybe we could have been tougher when the story became known, but there is no doubt that the Singapore Grand Prix was rigged, and should have been cancelled.”
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A joint Hamilton/Massa title
If this view was accepted by the current FIA officials it would of course void Lewis Hamilton’s maiden F1 championship.
With the weight of the former FIA president behind him, Massa’s journey for justice has taken on a new impetus and given the FIA’s complicit actions to hide Renault’s cheating, surely the current FIA president may be more sympathetic to the Felipe’s desire to have the record book re-opened.
In reality Hamilton will never be stripped of his title and the personnel involved from Renault have already been heavily sanctioned by the FIA.
To uphold any claim that suggests the FIA once acted without integrity could damage its reputation and play into the hands of FOM who are leaking briefs about a current potential breakaway.
Felipe Massa has offered a potential backdoor solution to the problem faced by the FIA and that is toward make him and Hamilton the 2008 season joint winners in some kind of effort to right a wrong of history that can never be fully expunged from F1.
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Codes that means now .. Verstappen would be stripped of his first title because that was cheating -galore. Or should bygones be bygones..it’s sure is complicated but cheating remains cheeting and of course Verstappen has no remorse for stealing a world title, what a fool
Clenn Vermeulen ZA
I fully agree with Bazil Bell that Verstappen should be stripped of his first F1 Championship. Rules are rules and we can’t overlook the fact that Masi made a mistake and was taken from his post and later pushed out of F1, but the title was never given to Hamilton. Toto also didn’t fight this matter . I am so disgusted just looking back to this. Massa now fight for a championship after 15 years and still Toto don’t reacts. It makes me wonder………..
If Massa get what he wants, and the results of that Singapore Race are abolished from the championship because it was manipulated, the same should be applied to the 2021 Abu Dhabi race, the whole race results should be abolished. But that will mean Max will still be the Champion… either way, Hamilton is still has only won 7 world Championships…
OK ,Basil please enlighten the F1 community how exactly Max cheated in 2021. Just as you can not blame Lewis for Flavio’s “scheme” in 2008, you can mever convince snybody that Max must be nlamed for a call made by FIA employee Massi……you are really trully showing your.ignorence and total lack of understanding of F2, OR IS IT BECAUSE YOU SRE S LEWIS SUPPORTER AND YOU JAVE COME TO THE CONCLUSION THAT MAX IS A CRIMINAL WHO COST LEWIS TO NOT GET TO 8 CHAMPIONSHIPS OR MAYBE 9 OR 10.
I REALLY AM SHOCKED TO SEE A GROWN UP REASONING LIKE A SMALL GIRL OF 6.
THE TWO INCIDENTS ( 2008 &2021) ARE TOTALLY DIFFERENT….2008 WAS HIDDEN DILIBERATELY BY THE WHOLE OF FIA where 2022 was investigated immediately after the race and FIA gave their verdict end Jan 2022. All the EVIDENCE tabled during the 2021 investigation pointed st Massi…….not even MB at any stage indicated that they duspect that Max or RB had anything to do with the decision taken by Massi….and yes ,same goes for Lewis in 2008….Even now15 years later nobody sccused Lewis of any wrongdoing….all pointed to Flavio Benneton Piwuet and GIA who were made aware of this and they did nothing.
In conclusion SUNSHINE, BEFORE YOU OPEN YOUR PIE HOLE , MAYBE GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT OR THINK BEFORE YOU DUFFER FROM VERBAL DIAREA
You cannot be revisionist so long after the event if the protagonists fighting the result were not involved in the cause (Renault allegedly cheated and did not win the race or the championship). The best would be to share the title owing to the FIA mess up. That then opens the door to 2021 not for Verstappen to be stripped (he crossed the line first) but for Hamilton to be equally recognised owing to another FIA foul up. If any other championships fall into this category I do not know.
Where do the regulations state that “the race should be struck from the results that year”? This is not journalism, it is total nonsense.