Bernie Ecclestoneformer boss of the Formula 1gave details of the scandal of the Singapore Grand Prix in 2008known as Crash Gate , for the suspicious crash of nelsinho piquetand after 15 years he assured that they should have canceled the race, something that would have declared champion Felipe Massa and not to lewis hamilton.
In an interview with F1-Insider, the former president and executive director of the entity assured that “We had enough information at the time to investigate the matter. According to the statutes, we should have canceled the Singapore race under those conditions. That means there would have been no repercussions for the championship standings, and Felipe Massa would have become world champion and not lewis hamilton. The same story is told by Ecclestone himself in the documentary series “Lucky!”, which recounts the career of the former Formula 1 manager.
Later, he added: “We decided to do nothing. We wanted to protect the sport and save it from a huge scandal. Back then, there was a rule that the ranking of a world champion was untouchable after the awards ceremony of the FIA at the end of the year. So Hamilton was handed the cup and everything went well. Even I still feel sorry for Massa. I feel sorry for him.”
“In the end, he won the home race in Sao Paulo and did everything right. He was cheated and didn’t take the title he deserved, while Hamilton had all the luck in the world and won his first championship. So for me, Michael Schumacher remains the only world champion, even if the statistics say otherwise,” Ecclestone remarked.
On the other hand, after Eccleston’s statements, the former Brazilian driver Felipe Massa came out to speak to the press and asked for justice by claiming his title: “I stress that I am not interested in the financial side of this story and rather justice. If both The most powerful people, the big boss of Formula 1 (Bernie Ecclestone) and the big boss of the FIA (Max Mosley), knew this in 2008 and kept quiet, it is very serious and inadmissible for the sport.”
If the Singapore Grand Prix was cancelled, Hamilton, who finished third and scored six points, would not have beaten Massa by just one unit and, thus, lift the first of his seven titles. The table would have ended with the Brazilian with 97 and the British with 92.
How was the Crash Gate and who was sanctioned
On September 28, 2008, the Singapore Grand Prix took place, the first to be run at night. On lap 13, Fernando Alonso pitted and Nelsinho Piquet, his Renault teammate, had a crash that allowed the Spaniard not to fall far behind and ultimately won the race.
The following year, the team let the Brazilian go, who declared that they had forced him to crash to favor the Spaniard, pointing directly to Flavio Briastore, team manager, and Pat Symonds, engineer.
The FIA investigated and confirmed Piquet’s complaint for which it sanctioned Renault for two years to race in F1, expelled Briastores for life and Symonds for five years, however, the team continued to compete, the Italian was pardoned and the English became a consultant for Marussia to become a director once he was five years old.
Source: Ambito
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