Massa Reveals Ferrari Tried to Silence Him Over Crashgate Comments
In a witness statement disclosed this week, Felipe Massa claimed Ferrari reprimanded him in 2009 after he implied that Fernando Alonso was aware of teammate Nelson Piquet Jr’s intentional crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.
The crash benefited Alonso, who won the race, while Massa’s championship hopes were damaged by a pit stop error, leaving him to finish 13th.
“In October 2009 I also told journalists that I believed Fernando Alonso (the other Renault driver who won because of Nelson’s crash) knew it was on purpose,” Massa said in his statement.
After these comments, Massa said Ferrari’s legal firm, GSA, sent him a formal letter dated 16 October 2009 reprimanding him for publicly discussing Alonso’s involvement.
“When Ferrari found out, GSA (the firm who handled the team’s contracts) wrote me a letter on 16 October 2009 reprimanding me about making public comments about Fernando Alonso.”
The letter was signed by Ferrari lawyer Henry Peter and arrived just before Alonso joined Ferrari for the 2010 season.
Ferrari also prepared a statement for Massa to release, but he refused to sign it.
“Ferrari then drafted a statement for me to issue but I refused to make that statement. Instead, I just said that it was time to look to the future,” Massa explained.
This disclosure adds complexity to Massa’s £64 million (approximately $128 million AUD) lawsuit against the FIA, Formula One Management (FOM), and Bernie Ecclestone, accusing them of ignoring race-fixing evidence that could have altered the 2008 championship results.
Summary
Felipe Massa alleges Ferrari tried to silence him over his claims that Alonso knew about the deliberate crash that influenced the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix outcome.
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