| I can’t imagine how the outcome of the 2008 Formula 1 World Championship has played on the mind of Felipe Massa for all these years since those fateful days in Singapore and Interlagos, when he ultimately lost out by a solitary point. Oh, how different that could have been – and F1’s first-ever night race in Singapore proved pivotal. The revelation that F1 chiefs Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley knew about the manipulation of that event, when Nelson Piquet Jr deliberately crashed to aid Renault team-mate Fernando Alonso’s victory, before the world championship trophy was handed to Lewis Hamilton has re-opened a can of worms. The controversy only surfaced in public a year later, by which time it was too late to do anything retrospectively. Massa had been dominating that race until the safety car, that Piquet caused, meant he pitted and Ferrari released him from its box prematurely with the fuel hose still attached, ruining his race. Would that have happened at his next planned pitstop? Who knows! Could Massa’s quest for justice work? I very much doubt it, as there’s simply no process for it to happen. But I do think that now, more than ever, he can be considered a moral F1 champion. By: Charles Bradley, Global Editor in Chief
Motorsport.com | 