Years after the Crashgate scandal(2008) actually took place, the controversy has once again begun to grab attention after new findings on the matter. This is because the driver who got affected by the scandal the most, Felipe Massa, is exploring legal actions. This could lead to Lewis Hamilton losing his 2008 championship title.
Earlier, the blame for the scandal was put on the then-Renault team principal Flavio Briatore. He was even handed a lifetime ban from F1, although the punishment was later rescinded to 3 years. Along with Briatore, Renault’s technical director Pat Symonds too was held responsible and was given a 5-year ban, which was also later rescinded to 3 years.
Pat Symonds, not Flavio Briatore orchestrated the Crashgate
For the major part of the controversy, Briatore was held mainly responsible for orchestrating the Crashgate. However, ex-F1 Supremo Bernie Ecclestone has now supported the views that the Frenchman did not have knowledge of the planned crash. He revealed that Symond had put the plan into action without Briatore’s knowledge.
Furthermore, Business F1 has reported that people who were there at the time also insist that Symonds acted on his own initiative and Briatore was forced to carry the responsibility. At the time it was thought that Briatore was penalized because of his clumsy attempts to cover up the mess.
What is the Crashgate Scandal?
In the 2008 Singapore GP, Nelson Piquet Jr(Renault) emphatically pinned his car into the wall bringing out the safety car. His teammate Fernando Alonso was the one who gained a massive advantage from this crash as he had taken an early pit stop and did not pit under safety cars like all the other drivers.
This led him to the lead of the race and as the race restarted he went on to win the race. Meanwhile, Hamilton finished 3rd in the race and Massa could not even place his car in the points.
The results of the race gave Hamilton a six-point lead over his rival Massa and he later went on to win the 2008 championship title by a single point. In the aftermath of the race in Singapore, Piquet Jr had described his crash as a ‘simple mistake’.
But after being dropped by the team at the end of the 2009 season, the Brazillian revealed that the crash was already planned and the team had asked him to deliberately hit the barriers. This revelation followed the punishments suffered by Briatore and Symonds.
Why is Felipe Massa exploring legal actions?
Recently, Ecclestone, who was running the sport along with FIA president Max Mosley at the time, revealed that he and Mosley had knowledge about the scandal way before it even came to light. Ecclestone argued that he and Mosley covered it up to ‘protect the sport from a scandal.’
If the investigation had started given the sport’s bosses already had knowledge of the wrongdoing, the race would have been nullified and had resulted in Massa winning the title by 5 points. But Ecclestone explained that the rules at the time stated that after the end of the season awards ceremony, the standings were set in stone and could not be revised.
Massa was not pleased after learning about the new facts and is therefore exploring legal actions. He said, “This is very sad, to know the result of this race was supposed to be canceled and I would have a title. In the end, I was the one who lost the most with this result. So, we are going after it to understand all this.”
