The scandal
The 2008 Formula 1 world championship season was marked by an unfortunate episode which led to the dismissal of manager Flavio Briatore, found guilty of having manipulated the Singapore Grand Prix in the first edition held at the Marina Bay circuit. In fact, Nelson Piquet junior’s accident was artfully engineered by Flavio Briatore to give Fernando Alonso the chance to win the Grand Prix thanks to the Safety Car which helped the two-time F1 world champion. The plan studied by the Renault team principal worked perfectly and Fernando Alonso triumphed ahead of Nico Rosberg’s Williams and Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren. Felipe Massa did not score points due to an unfortunate and unexpected event: restarting after the pit stop, the fuel filler cap remained attached to the Brazilian’s Ferrari car and Felipe was thus forced to retire.
Six decisive points
The 2008 championship had a thrilling final race with Felipe Massa who, when he crossed the finish line of the final Brazilian Grand Prix in front of his home fans in first position, was world champion for a few seconds, exactly like his teammate Kimi Raikkonen twelve months earlier, but an overtaking on the last lap in the last meters of Lewis Hamilton against Timo Glock (whose slow pace was due to the dry tires obviously not suitable for the track which was wet in the final laps due to the rain) meant the Brazilian incredibly lost the title.
Lewis Hamilton therefore became world champion in his second season in Formula 1 after having come close to the feat already in 2007. Without the podium taken by Hamilton in Singapore which earned the McLaren driver six points in the standings, overtaking Glock would have been irrelevant.
Bernie Ecclestone knew everything
The former F1 boss has given an interview which will generate a lot of discussion. According to Bernie Ecclestone, in fact, he himself and Max Mosley (then president of the FIA) are responsible for not having canceled the Singapore Grand Prix given that the ‘evidence’ of the incident concocted by Renault – in particular by Flavio Briatore – was already quite clear. “We decided to do nothing, we wanted to protect the sport from a huge scandal – Bernie Ecclestone said in an interview with the German newspaper F1-insider.com – I convinced Nelson Piquet senior, my ex-driver in the past, to keep quiet for the moment. At the time there was a rule that a world championship standings were untouchable after the FIA awards ceremony at the end of the year, Hamilton received the trophy and all was well. We had enough information at the time to investigate the matter. According to the statute, we should have canceled the Singapore race, which would not have been valid for the championship standings. Felipe Massa would have become world champion, not Lewis Hamilton.” – Bernie Ecclestone pointed out.
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Displeasure
“Today I’m still sorry for Felipe Massa – added Bernie Ecclestone – he was cheated of the title he deserved, while Hamilton had all the luck in the world and won his first championship. Today I would have done things differently. That’s why, for me, Michael Schumacher is still the only record-breaking world champion with seven titles, even if the statistics say otherwise.”
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