Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur believes “it would be strange” to retrospectively award Felipe Massa the 2008 Formula 1 title.
Vasseur’s comments come as the former Ferrari driver escalated his legal challenge over the outcome of the 2008 championship last week.
Massa’s lawyers claim he was “the victim of a conspiracy committed by individuals at the highest level of F1 together with the FIA and Formula One Management”.
They also report that the former driver lost out on tens of millions of euros in lost earnings and bonuses as a result of Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately crashing out of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.
Massa lost out on vital points in his championship challenge as a result of Piquet’s crash. The 2008 championship saw Massa defeated by a single point by McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton.
“As you can imagine I don’t want to make any comment on this matter, I have a good relationship with all the stakeholders!” Vasseur commented.
“It’s quite tricky, for sure the circumstances were completely exceptional… but more generally and not about Felipe I think we are trying to push the FIA to know the result of the event at the chequered flag, and perhaps this would be strange.
“I’m not a big fan to change the result of the race 15 minutes after the chequered flag [let alone 15 years]!”
Details about ‘Crashgate’ emerged publicly the following year with Renault handed a two-year suspended ban from F1, while team boss Flavio Briatore and technical chief Pat Symonds were also disciplined for their roles in the incident.
At the time, Massa led calls for the FIA to cancel the result of the Singapore Grand Prix, however the FIA’s International Sporting Code dictated that classification from each season is set in stone once the FIA Awards ceremony is completed.
The 11-time winner began pursuing legal action earlier this year when former F1 owner Bernie Ecclestone revealed that he and former FIA president Max Mosely knew Piquet’s crash was deliberate but chose not to act.
I agree that the FIA should have acted immediately once they knew that Nelson Piquet Jr. had crashed on purpose, to give his teammate a chance to pit and therefore win the race.
Bernie Ecclestone is quoted as saying “According to the statutes, we should have cancelled the race in Singapore under these conditions.” In that case, Hamilton would have not gained the 6 points for 3rd place, and Massa would have been champion, all other races being the same.
However, if the FIA goes back to correct that, it will not give Massa the championship. If the FIA had acted on the cheating as soon as they learned about it, they could have done one of two things.
First, rather than cancel the entire result of the Singapore race, they may have disqualified the Renault team from that race only. Disqualifying Alonso, the winner, would have elevated Hamilton from third place to second. Massa would have gone from 13th to 12th, still with no points from the race. So Hamilton would have gained 2 more points and would have become champion at the end of the season.
The other action that the FIA may have taken would be to disqualify the Renault team from the whole season, similar to the exclusion of the McLaren team in 2007. In that case, the points from all the races would be refigured without the Renault team. In that case, Hamilton would have gained points in France (moving from 10th to 8th = 1 point), Hungary (5th to 4th = 1 point more), Italy (7th to 6th = 1 point more), Singapore (3rd to 2nd = 2 points more), and Brazil (5th to 4th = 1 point more), for a total gain of 6 points. Massa would have gained points in Germany (3rd place to second = 2 points more), Italy (6th to 5th = 1 point), and Japan (7th to 5th [due to both Renaults finishing ahead of him] = 2 points more), for a total gain of 5 points; and again, Hamilton would have had more points and been champion.
Of course, if the FIA had acted during the season, race results may have been different, so there is no way to determine how things would end up.
By the way, Massa had 6 first places, and Hamilton had 5. But Massa had 2 retirements and 3 finishes outside the points (lower than 8th), while Hamilton had only one retirement and 3 finishes outside the points.