Felipe Massa has said that Renault’s cheating cost him the 2008 World Championship, which Lewis Hamilton won by a point. In an interview with Globoesporte.com.
“I was very upset with everything that happened,” Massa said. “Not only with what Renault did, which was a theft. And it created a lot of things, the Safety Car meant that most of the cars had to go the pits, and I was one of them. We had 10 cars going into the pits. Mine went wrong. There were two cars at the same time. A mechanic pressed a button in a situation that would never have happened in a normal pit stop. What bothers me is that Renault stole the win.
“The result remains the same,” Massa said. “This is not right. For me it should have been changed. I lost the title by one point. I am not and never will be a driver who thinks, ‘I could have been World Champion’. “Even if they write today in my CV that I am the champion, after a year, I don’t think it would make any difference.
“We went to a lawyer, but there comes a time when there is nothing that can be done. Is the rule, the FIA decides.”
Nothing like a bit of peace and harmony between team mates is there.
Perhaps they can go head to head for the WWC.
I find it difficult to have sympathy with Felipe in this instance. He did not lose the Grand Prix as a direct result of Renault’s actions.
One can understand Felipe’s feelings but he forgot to mention a little help from the Scuderia’s friends at Spa last year and his own heroics in Melbourne and Sepang in 2008 which lost him more than 1 point. He made quite a lot of mistakes last year actually. Get over it, Fel. Actions speak louder than words, I hope he can make a successful return and win some.
Renault/Piquet/Briatore/Symonds bear absolutely no responsibility for an error by a member of the Ferrari pit crew, that *could* just as easily have happened the next time Massa pitted.
With Massa’s logic, _every_ _single_ _time_ an accident causes a safety car, every driver that comes out of it at a disadvantage could argue it is the fault of the crashing driver(s).
No dice.
Oddly contradictory – “Even if they write today in my CV that I am the champion, after a year, I don’t think it would make any difference.” Followed by “we went to a lawyer . . .”
Ok, take away Alonso’s win. So Massa is 12th. A lawyer could get that changed to 1st? On what possible grounds, on what planet?
It’s unfortunate that Felipe, from this distance, is unable to allow that Lewis had just as many, if not more, what-ifs in 2008. E.g. if he hadn’t been penalised for breaking a rule that hadn’t yet been invented at Spa, it wouldn’t have come down to the one point.
There are too many ifs and buts for legal proceedings I feel.
How could one possibly compute what may have happened had Piquet not taken his action? Who benefitted? Who lost out? Several drivers who were just as inconvenienced as Felipe finished ahead of him in the final result.
Also, aside from the fuel hose problem and the drive through penatly Felipe spun on lap 52, taking out Sutil in the process. What might have happened had this spin occurred nearer the business end of the race? Might he have taken out Hamilton? Who can say?
It wouldn’t be too hard to argue that McLaren could have opted for a different strategy for Hamilton in the remaining races had the points situation been different.
At Interlagos they opted on a conservative strategy that would do just enough get the points he needed. Who is to say he could not have got more had it been necessary?
My sentiments exactly, and to second that, i think the least that could have been done is ban Renault for the rest of this season, and then suspend their indefinite suspension from the sport, this way Alonso would get a bit of smack for being (out of the loop) and Renault get a pinching slap on the wrist.
granted there are too many what ifs now on last year’s championship, but i always thought Massa deserved it more, 6 wins to 5 is what makes my mind….
Massa needs to think this through. Hamilton was unfairly penalised several times. If he went to law why should not Hamilton for other unfair practices by stewards.
Indeed the fact that he raised this suggest he is nowhere near well enough even to go karting. It takes a long time for the old bonce to be healed physically and mentally.
I don’t quite understand what Massa is saying here! Does he want the result changed or not? It’s as if on one hand he wants the result to be changed so he would become champion:
“This is not right. For me it should have been changed”
…but then he’s also saying he doesn’t want to become a retrospective champion:
“I am not and never will be a driver who thinks, ‘I could have been World Champion. Even if they write today in my CV that I am the champion, after a year, I don’t think it would make any difference.”
I don’t understand!
Surely Massa needs to direct his attention towards his own performance during the early part of 2007 and the chap who pressed the green light during his pitstop in Singapore if he wants to find tangible reasons why he lost the championship. I don’t buy any of the “we messed up our pitstop because of the extra stress of the situation” excuses – ultimately, this is the pinacle of motorsport, all pitstop situations should be practiced to perfection and no amount of stress should be too high.
I don’t think Massa and Alonso will get on too well at Ferrari!! Massa might think Alonso was in part responsible for Singapore 2008.
Alonso is likely to be much faster than Massa and I’m not sure if Massa could take this.
Alonso to Ferrari was the correct decision, but Massa was the driver to drop – not Raikkonen.
“We went to a lawyer, but there comes a time when there is nothing that can be done. Is the rule, the FIA decides.”
Wait a minute, is he talking about Singapore, or Spa?
Unfortunately I think Massa would be better to maintain the stoic sportsmanship that he displayed so wonderfully after Brazil last year rather than start dredging up “what ifs”. That just leads to chaos. There were so many other controversial turns of fate last year… How about Spa, which was at least controversial… Massa, a distant third for most of the race ends up winning after Hamilton is penalized out of a victory. Now one may feel that the penalty was just, but many others don’t so you could argue forever.
What if the safety car had actually helped Massa last year and he ended up narrowly winning the championship as a result… Would he now be asking to have it taken away?
Stuff happens. Hamilton and Massa and their respective teams had nothing to do with the safety car incident last year and both teams had to deal with the surprise. Ferrari bodged it and that is harsh for Massa, but that is racing. Renault may have created the circumstances (illegally) but Ferrari still made the pit blunder.
I haven’t bothered to look through the 2008 championship results, but I’m pretty sure Singapore alone is not the only race in which Felipe Massa or Ferrari lost significant points.
Silly and short sighted of him to look at it this way.
He’s not wrong, but, go to a lawyer ? That’s surprising.
I am disappointed that he is talking about consulting lawyers about this. No-one knows how the race would have turned out had Renault not done what they did. Felipe may feel he would have won the title otherwise but in reality anything could have happened. He or Lewis could have blown an engine or had an accident or any number of other things which would have changed the fate of the championship around.
Goodness me Felipe, do let it go now, there’s a love. So many ifs and buts in that one. The cheating was completely unacceptable, but there we go.
Sadly, that probably was your only chance, though you are a half decent peddler.
Good luck with Fernando next year!
*oof*
I’m sorry, but that argument doesn’t hold a whole lot of water with me. By that argument, if Massa had won in Singapore (i.e. if Renault hadn’t tried to fix the race for Alonso), Lewis would likely have come in second (where he was running when the safety car came out, seven seconds ahead of Raikkonen), instead of the third place that he eventually got. That would be two more points for Lewis, as well. Given those results, the score after Singapore would have been 87 for Massa and 86 for Lewis. With that being the case, would the FIA have been as likely to give Lewis a drive through penalty for “forcing” Kimi off the road at Fuji? Would Massa have been as likely to run into Hamilton on the second lap at Fuji while defending a position that was worth a single point? Would McLaren have played an entirely different setup/tire strategy in Brazil, in order to try to win instead of just finish 5th? In any of those cases, it’s impossible to say. Singapore did not happen in a vacuum, and if the results of that race had been different, it’s likely that the results for all of the following races would have been different as well. That old theory, the Butterfly Effect, comes to mind…
Can’t wait to see Felipe out-drive Fernando while Lewis tries to rattle Kimi at the front of the field.
I don’t want to be mean to Massa after everything he has been through.
However, it should be pointed out that it was his team that screwed up. Renault didn’t play with the fuel rig by adding crazy glue to the nozzle or anything. Renault didn’t cause his two self-inflicted DNF’s to start the 2008 season. These were mistakes of Ferrari and their driver. Period.
I understand the anger from Massa. However there are a lot more things that cost him the title than just Piquet going into wall.
“Felipe, baby, stay cool!”
Ferrari and McLaren, as teams, squandered about 35 points each on silly mistakes that season. There’s nothing useful to come from playing a blind game of “what if”.
“Can’t wait to see Felipe out-drive Fernando while Lewis tries to rattle Kimi at the front of the field.”
I’d put money on Fernando in the first competition, but I don’t think Kimi will trouble Lewis at McLaren. For the most part, it seems Kimi can’t be arsed these days. Time to find a new source of adrenaline, mate.
If and when Massa returns to the grid, he’ll be the ‘recovering hero’ for the first few races, then a kicked puppy for the rest of the season when he can’t get close to Fernando, and there’ll be all kinds of accusations of unfair treatment of the two drivers… probably from both sides of the garage. Watching Ferrari implode is going to be fun! (unless you’re employed at Maranello or Fiorano, of course)
Massa saying this doesn’t reflect very well on his character at all. But then he was the one who said in the China 2008 press conference that he managed to catch up to Kimi and overtake him for second place, when everyone could see that Kimi practically parked the car to let him past. Massa shouldn’t show he is lacking in honour. Lewis would have won by many more points anyway last year without FIArrari intervening so often.
If it’s true that Felipe went to a lawyer, then I’m really disappointed with him. Felipe seems to forget that he was given a win at Spa in which he wasn’t even in the picture for a win.
Felipe also seems to forget that he wouldn’t have won at Valencia last year, if he had received a drive through penalty which he deserved, instead of a $10,000 fine for a pit stop incident. During the GP2 race on the previous day, a driver was given a drive through penalty, not a fine for a similar incident.
Felipe seems to forget the safety car ruined Hamilton’s race in Canada. Hamilton clearly had the race in hand, and probably would have won if there wasn’t a safety car, which led to that disastrous and infamous pit stop.
I think Massa should shut his mouth up. He is not a world champion and he will never I believe. He doesn’t have a genick to be world champion. Kimi has that and proven it already. The problem is Ferrari chemistry did not suit him. Tha’t why he leaved Ferrari
Dear Agus,
Let us try and keep this civilised. If you want to make comments please be polite.
Personally I was a bit dissapointed with Massa claiming this cost him the World Championship. Although the circumstances might have contributed to a pitlane mistake, it was a teamwork mistake that was the ultimate cost of his championship. I know in football results are annulled if match fixing is found. An Olympic champion loses their medals if found having taken illegal substances. There is some precedence but in F1 the rules are not the same. I do feel that it is unfair that Renault and Alonso have a win on their record book which is undeserved. It is difficult to know what is actually the fairest way to deal with Singapore 2008 race.
eh what, he wants the result changed, but he doesn’t want to be the winner of the ’08 WDC… what does he want exactly?
Dear Felipe Massa,
Let’s by gone be by gone. just concentration to your recovery and proof your self in the next year is better than your new team mate.
bravo from Indonesia
I think it is now quite well accepted that McLaren suffered unfairly at the hands of the Stewards in 2008. (This unfair treatment eventually culminated in the Spy-Gate affair which clearly was a move intended to get rid of Ron, much like the recent Renault saga where Flav’s head was the dish of the day!)
In 2008 Massa benefitted greatly from the FIA’s anti-Ron campaign, noteably at Spa. In that race he was a distant third while LH and KR had a titanic struggle up front.
LH didn’t really gain an advantage from the famous chicane moment as KR was back in front on the very same lap this negating the issue.
Also, why did the Stewards choose not to give Hamilton a drive through immediately? Perhaps becasue a charging Hamilton may have caught and re-passed the lacklustre Massa in his recalcitrant Ferrari?
And why did Charlie Whiting twice inform McLaren that LH had done enough in giving the place back? Very dodgy!
When Kimi later threw it off the road, the only person who had arguably lost out due to LH’s move was out of the race. Yet LH was penalised and a distant and trailing Massa inherited an undeserved win. Furthermore, the only reason the inevitable McLaren appeal failed is that drive throughs can’t be appealed. How convenient! The appeal did not fail due to lack of evidence!!
If my poor memory recalls it correctly, Massa was also allowed to get away with an unsafe release which normally would have resulted in a drive through as it had in GP2 the previous day! (Or was that at a different race? – Forgive my ailing memory)
On the rare occasions when Ferrari did get penalised in 2008 they were already at the back of the field and lost nothing. On other occasions their woes were of the self inflicted variety (engine failures, fuel hose issues etc.)
The 2008 World Champion was a deserving one as he had to overcome the loss of numerous points at the hands of the Stewards throughout the season!
Rant over.
McLaren fans often go on about the Spa event and then point out the Valencia release. There have been a couple of cases of unsafe release by Red Bull (and I think Force India) this year which have not been penalised and some even more dangerous weaving on the straight to prevent being overtaken (again Vettel – Monza). Accept regulations are not always consistently applied. The chicane cutting by Lewis was certainly wrong (being an ex racer) but I think this is where the FIA should simply have told him to give back the place (like they did with Mark last weekend). Of course that loss by Hamilton is compensated by the really unfortunate blowing of Massa’s engine 3 laps from the end of the race where Macca pick up a victory. Personally I think either Felipe or Lewis were equally deserving. Just leave the results as they are. I could point out that Lewis was quite lucky to escape punishment for pushing Timo (and Alonso) right off the circuit during the wet Monza last year. These incidents/events involving both drivers very much equalise each other out. I do wish that Felipe had not made these comments about Singapore and that he simply concentrates on making a full recovery to take on Lewis next year.
Reply to Ronman “6 Massa wins to 5 Hamiltons wins is what makes my mind” Massa’s win at spa was given to him by Kimi, very obvious for the whole world to see. You call that a win? No one gave or helped Lewis with 1 single point instead fia was busy taking points from him.