{"id":297377,"date":"2023-12-07T01:25:40","date_gmt":"2023-12-07T01:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?p=297377"},"modified":"2023-12-07T01:25:40","modified_gmt":"2023-12-07T01:25:40","slug":"ex-fia-chief-race-that-handed-hamilton-2008-world-title-was-rigged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/racing\/f1\/ex-fia-chief-race-that-handed-hamilton-2008-world-title-was-rigged\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-FIA chief &#8211; race that handed Hamilton 2008 world title was &apos;RIGGED&apos;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1> Former FIA chief Jean Todt claims race that handed Lewis Hamilton 2008 world title was &#8216;RIGGED&#8217; and &#8216;should have been cancelled&#8217;, amid ongoing legal challenge by Felipe Massa<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Lewis Hamilton narrowly won the 2008 Formula One world title by just one point\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>He edged out Felipe Massa, who had a fatal pit stop error at the Singapore GP\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>There has been major controversy surrounding that decisive Singapore race\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Former Ferrari and FIA chief Jean Todt has claimed the infamous Singapore Grand Prix in 2008 was &#8216;rigged&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>The 2008 drivers&#8217; championship went right down to the wire, with McLaren&#8217;s Lewis Hamilton winning his first world title by just one point over Ferrari&#8217;s Felipe Massa in the last race of the season in Brazil.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Singapore Grand Prix &#8211; which was the 15th out of 18 races that year &#8211; saw Renault&#8217;s Fernando Alonso win after Massa suffered a pit-stop error when he drove off with the fuel hose still attached to his car.<\/p>\n<p>The race &#8211; in which Hamilton came third &#8211; was ultimately decisive in the world championship race, but generated controversy after it was claimed in 2009 that Alonso&#8217;s team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr was ordered to crash by his team in order to boost the Spaniard&#8217;s chances of winning.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Massa came 13th so didn&#8217;t pick up any points and he had only allegedly pitted because of Pique Jr&#8217;s crash.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/06\/20\/78661695-12834221-image-a-1_1701896140653.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Former F1 chief Jean Todt has claimed the infamous Singapore Grand Prix in 2008 was &#8216;rigged&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/06\/21\/78662597-12834221-image-a-6_1701896503273.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Renault&#8217;s Fernando Alonso won the Singapore race after team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr was allegedly told to crash by his team, with Felipe Massa subsequently suffering a pit-stop error and only finishing 13th which impacted his hopes of winning the world championship<\/p>\n<p>The controversy arose again this year when former F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone suggested the FIA knew all about Renault&#8217;s supposed request.<\/p>\n<p>Pique Jr made the original claims when he was dropped by Renault in 2009, with the FIA subsequently charging the team with conspiracy.<\/p>\n<p>Renault decided not to contest the charges and threatened legal action against their former driver, before they received a suspended ban from F1, while managing director Flavio Briatore and executive director of engineering Pat Symonds left the team.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And Todt &#8211; who was Ferrari&#8217;s CEO at the time, before serving as FIA president from 2009 to 2021 &#8211; has now commented on the controversy and claimed more should have been done to deal with the alleged underhand tactics.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I don\u2019t get into the controversy,&#8217; he told Italian outlet La Stampa. &#8216;For him (Massa), psychologically, it was very hard.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/06\/20\/78661843-12834221-image-a-2_1701896157267.jpg\" height=\"473\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Lewis Hamilton edged out Ferrari&#8217;s Massa by one point to win his first ever world title in 2008<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/06\/20\/78661845-12834221-image-a-3_1701896217319.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Massa launched a legal challenge earlier this year, claiming he should be handed the title<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Maybe we (the FIA) could have been tougher when the story came out. There is no doubt that the Singapore Grand Prix was rigged and should have been cancelled.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Speaking in March, Ecclestone&#8217;s comments were staggering as he said: &#8216;We had enough information in time to investigate the matter. According to the statutes, we should have cancelled the race in Singapore under these conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;That means it would never have happened for the championship standings. And then Felipe Massa would have become world champion and not Lewis Hamilton.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;(But we did not act in order to) protect the sport and save it from a huge scandal.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Massa has since launched a legal challenge to be handed the title, suggesting the Singapore Grand Prix should have been cancelled.<\/p>\n<p>Hamilton is yet to speak on the matter but his current team principal at Mercedes Toto Wolff insisted he doesn&#8217;t expect Massa to succeed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;<span>I don&#8217;t think he has a case, to be honest,&#8217; Wolff said. &#8216;We are signing up to sporting regulations.\u00a0<\/span>They&#8217;re very clear, and you commit as a licence holder.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/06\/20\/78661847-12834221-image-a-4_1701896304337.jpg\" height=\"429\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Ex-F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone admitted the Singapore race should have been cancelled<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/12\/06\/20\/78662177-12834221-image-a-5_1701896305716.jpg\" height=\"439\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Massa (with Hamilton after the final race of the season) also believes it should be cancelled<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;If everybody were to open up situations, then the sport would be in disarray, and especially when you look at the full championships.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;There are so many things that have an influence whether you win or lose that I don&#8217;t see the case to be honest.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;On the civil case side, I don&#8217;t know. Let&#8217;s evaluate whether there are some damages that could be claimed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;This is like watching a soap opera playing out in front of me.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/formulaone\/article-12834221\/Former-FIA-chief-Jean-Todt-claims-race-handed-Lewis-Hamilton-2008-world-title-RIGGED-cancelled-amid-ongoing-legal-challenge-Felipe-Massa.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Former FIA chief Jean Todt claims race that handed Lewis Hamilton 2008 world title was &#8216;RIGGED&#8217; and &#8216;should have been cancelled&#8217;, amid ongoing legal challenge <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/racing\/f1\/ex-fia-chief-race-that-handed-hamilton-2008-world-title-was-rigged\/\" title=\"Ex-FIA chief &#8211; race that handed Hamilton 2008 world title was &amp;apos;RIGGED&amp;apos;\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297376,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ex-FIA chief - race that handed Hamilton 2008 world title was &amp;apos;RIGGED&amp;apos; 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