Massa convinced Alonso “knew everything’ about ‘crash-gate’ scandal

Former Ferrari driver Massa is taking legal against F1 and is seeking compensation for the ‘crash-gate’ scandal at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, which his lawyers claim caused him to lose that year’s title to Lewis Hamilton. 

Renault fixed the race by asking Nelson Piquet Jr to deliberately crash, triggering a Safety Car that gave a sporting advantage to his teammate Alonso, who went on to win. 

Massa had been leading the race but a farcical pit stop under the Safety Car in question saw him pull away with the fuel hose still attached to his car, causing him to retire. He subsequently missed out on the championship to Hamilton by one point. 

The Brazilian has now alleged that Alonso was aware of Renault’s plot. 

“I spoke to Alonso on a few occasions, when we were team-mates [at Ferrari],” Massa told Motorsport.com's Brazilian language sister website. 

“Logically, Fernando always insinuated that it wasn’t his fault, but he always changed the subject. 

“I never had a clear conversation, when a person accepts and talks is when that person is clear about things. 

“When the person doesn’t want to talk in the right way, we know that maybe he knew everything. I’m sure he knew it.”

Massa said the incident has ruined his relationship with fellow countryman Piquet Jr, as well as his three-time world championship-winning father. 

“Well, with Nelson Piquet Jr., I spoke after what happened in 2009, and obviously we don’t have a great relationship,” he added.

“So anyway, everything he tried to do when he uncovered it is clear, everybody knew about it. He crashed on purpose in a race that was manipulated for his teammate to win, so I’m not going to talk to him. 

"Everything he did was clear. I tried to talk to his father [three-time F1 World Champion Nelson Piquet], but his father didn’t want to talk to me.”

Massa stressed he is “very optimistic” about his case, which he insisted is aimed at achieving “justice for the sport” rather than simply being about money.

"It's pretty clear that we are going to finish just when we have a result that we believe is correct for the justice of the sport," he said.

"That's why we decided to get together a very big and important legal team. I'm doing that for the sport, I'm doing that to show that manipulation is not part of our sport.

"I'm not doing that for money, I'm doing that for the justice of the sport. So, whatever people trying to write about the money is completely wrong.

"Compensation definitely exists. For example, now I'm spending a lot of money on that case but definitely I'm not doing that [for the money].”