Brazilian Felipe Massa has accused Renault and Nelson Piquet Jr of robbing him of the 2008 Formula One title by fixing last year’s Singapore Grand Prix.
After meeting compatriot Piquet at the Granja Viana karting track near Sao Paulo, the Ferrari driver told Brazil’s Globo television that the race result should have been changed after the driver’s deliberate crash.
Massa failed to score in Singapore, after leading from pole position, after a nightmare pitstop following the deployment of the safety car after Piquet’s crash. He was beaten to the title by McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton despite winning more races than the Briton.
“All of what happened was robbery — but regarding the race nothing has happened, the result stays the same. That’s not right,” said Massa, who is recovering from a life-threatening head injury suffered in Hungary in July.
“The robbery changed the championship. I lost by one point,” he said.
Renault were handed a permanent suspended ban last month and former team boss Flavio Briatore banned for life for his involvement.
Piquet went unpunished after the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) offered him immunity in return for testifying.
Massa compared the situation to soccer.
“I have seen in football how a referee took money to throw a game and all the matches he influenced were annulled,” Massa said. “The team responsible were relegated.”
“Here they just sent Briatore home. I don’t understand it and I don’t think it was right,” he said.
FIA President Max Mosley told reporters at last month’s Italian Grand Prix that the race result could not be changed.
“We cannot interfere with the results of the championship, or indeed of that race, because of Article 179B of the International Sporting Code,” he said. “On the 30th November the championship is finished, whatever.”
Massa returned to the track this week for the first time since he was hit on the head by flying debris at the Hungaroring.
Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali told reporters Massa was on course to come back next season.
“He is recovering very, very well, because he is already in the second step of his training progress,” he said. “Everything is running very smoothly and he should be back in Europe next week in order to do some activity on the simulator and then we will see after that what will be the next step.”
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