Ferrari driver Felipe Massa claims Fernando Alonso’s victory in last year’s Singapore grand prix ‘robbed’ him of winning the world championship.
Renault admitted fixing the race after Alonso’s then team mate Nelson Piquet deliberately crashed to bring out a safety car, which helped Alonso take victory at the time. Massa was leading at the time, but the safety car forced him to make a pit stop which was botched by his team.
“All of what happened was robbery - but regarding the race nothing has happened, the result remains the same,” said Massa. “This is not right.”
“The robbery changed the outcome of a championship and I lost [the title].”
Massa claimed Formula One should look to the example set by football, where fixed matches are wiped from the records.
“I have seen in football how a referee took money to throw a game and all the suspect results were annulled," said Massa. "In Italy, Juventus were relegated. But here they just sent Briatore home. I don't get it and I don't think it was right.”
Massa also questioned Piquet’s chances of ever making a return to the sport.
“In general it was a very ugly attitude for a team to come up to you and say that you have to crash in order to renew your contract," he said. "A driver who knew he was going to be fired.
"Nelsinho knew he was going to be fired. I believe that admitting a mistake is a good thing, because the guy told the truth. He shouldn't have waited so long to tell the truth. He told [the truth] because he was fired, this is not cool.
"He is in a very difficult position in Formula 1. You can be certain that if someone from a team says, 'Let's hire Nelsinho', it won't go down well. I don't think I would do this. I think that I would have to think very hard about it [and] I think that I wouldn't be able to do it."
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Re: Alonso win 'robbed' Massa
One thing to smile about though - after Alonso's rant that he would help anyone win over Hamilton - maybe his team in cheating to get him a win did indeed hand the championship to Lewis! That must smart a bit Fernando eh?
Re: Alonso win 'robbed' Massa
Completely agree, I've said the same thing before myself. We'll never know for sure what would have happened but the chances are that Massa wouldn't have pitted when he did and therefore wouldn't have had such a bad pit stop. He would probably now be world champion.
The fact is though that we'll never know what would have happened so the result (championship not race) must stand.
Re: Alonso win 'robbed' Massa
That's why you can never take away the championship from Hamilton. He deserved it, but with the cheating by Renault it's unfair that Massa didn't. Very difficult to restore any sense of fairness when the contest was so close.
You're not the only one.