Former FIA president, Jean Todt believes that the result of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix should have been cancelled.

His comments come at a time Felipe Massa is taking legal action to have that season's world championship standings overturned.

In what was to become the Crashgate scandal, it was revealed almost a year later that Renault driver, Nelson Piquet Jnr had been ordered to deliberately crash his car in a bid to assist teammate Fernando Alonso.

When it was revealed, Piquet, who had exposed the scandal after being dropped by the French team, was left with his career in tatters, while team boss Flavio Briatore was banned from the sport. However, even though the team's sporting director, Pat Symonds left the team in disgrace, the result stood.

The race was won by Alonso, however Massa, who had been leading the race at the time, subsequently finished 13th following a disastrous pit stop during the yellow flag period that followed Piquet's 'crash'.

The title was decided months later in Brazil when Lewis Hamilton famously passed Timo Glock in the final corner of the final lap to claim fifth, and thereby the point needed to beat (race winner) Massa for the title.

Earlier this year, speaking to a British tabloid, then F1 boss, Bernie Ecclestone revealed that he and (then) FIA president, Max Mosley had been made aware of the true nature of Piquet's 'crash' by his father shortly after.

"Piquet Jr had told his father Nelson that he had been asked by the team to deliberately drive into the wall at a certain point in time in order to trigger a safety car phase and help his team-mate Alonso," Ecclestone told the Daily Mirror. "We decided not to do anything for the time being. We wanted to protect the sport and save it from a huge scandal.

"There was a rule at the time that a world championship ranking was untouchable after the FIA awards ceremony at the end of the year," he added. "So Hamilton was presented with the world championship trophy and everything was fine."

It was this comment by Ecclestone that triggered Massa's legal action.

Jean Todt, who was Ferrari's boss at the time of the Singapore race, and was elected FIA president a year later, believes the result of the race should not have been allowed to stand.

"This case is special," he told L'Equipe. "There was proven cheating that we only found out about later.

"The rule at the FIA has always been that the results must be ratified by Dec. 31, and that we never go back on them," he added. "For this Singapore case, the facts were only revealed a year later, and the sanctions imposed by the FIA before my arrival were cancelled by the Paris Judicial Court.

"When I was president of the FIA, I was not informed of this," he continued. "Discovering that the federation knew the truth before this famous December 31 could indeed change things.

"Unfortunately, Charlie (Whiting) and Max have passed away. In hindsight, well, we should have asked for the race to be cancelled. The completely new fact, if it is true and verifiable, is that the regulator who made the championship official knew."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Ricardo_sanchez, 06/01/2024 13:40

"@kenji - I think there might be several difficulties with your suggested approach:

F1 races are dynamic events where countless variables (team strategies, driver decisions, mechanical issues, weather conditions, etc.) interact. A single incident (like the deliberate crash in Singapore) cannot be considered to have definitively determined the championship outcome unless we ignored this complexity. Each race is an independent event with its own dynamics, and the teams adjust strategies and decisions minute by minute and race by race.

Further, the outcome of one race influences strategies in subsequent races. If the Singapore result had been annulled, it could be argued that the teams would have approached the remaining races differently. In this ‘what if’ scenario, it is difficult to definitively state that Massa would have won the championship since we don’t know what other teams would have done.

Retroactively altering results would set a challenging precedent. It might lead to calls for revisions of other races where controversial incidents occurred, potentially (further) undermining the credibility of the sport.

Annulment of the race result would affect all drivers and teams, and be unfair to those who competed in good faith and whose performances were unrelated to the cheating. Affected teams might even put in legal challenges of their own.

There is a general principle of finality in sports results, where outcomes are considered settled once they are officially confirmed.

I can sympathise with Massa’s argument but the chain of causation is stretched beyond breaking point. "

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2. Posted by kenji, 28/12/2023 0:45

"@Ricardo-sanchez.... From my perspective it's all rather simple. Once the pre race plan, entered into by the conspirators was enacted, what was left of the race was totally contaminated by that decision. Exclusion of either the driver and/or the team matters zippedy do dah...IMO. The race result must be cancelled and the results of the final total used to re establish the true WDC championship. Other competitors may or may not be affected but that is by the by. The fact is that it happened and the FIA were aware of a conspiracy that had been acted out and refused to admit it publically therefore they are as a guilty as the original protagonists...and they should be sanctioned. Massa, as it turns out, was the winner in that year and nothing short of acknowledgment will suffice. IMO."

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3. Posted by Ricardo_sanchez, 23/12/2023 15:02

"@Bender6 - absolutely correct. There’s no precedent for annulling the results of a race, as far as I’m aware. It would be unfair to the other competitor who had no involvement in the cheating.

@Schrodinger’s cat - annulling the race result would not be fair to the other competitors.

@Kenji - I have some sympathy for Massa but - as Bender6 say - removing Alonso’s win would have simply given Hamilton more points in that race. Massa would still have scored no points from the Singapore event.
"

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4. Posted by Bender6, 22/12/2023 22:39

"When cheating or being found to be outside the regulations is detected that competitor is excluded from the results. If a team is found to have cheated then that team and possibly it’s drivers are excluded. The race result is never cancelled. What people here seem to want to ignore is if Alonso was excluded then Hamilton would still win the championship, perhaps this points to their motives rather than justice for Massa who unrelated to the Renault cheating drove off with his fuel hose attached."

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5. Posted by Schrodinger's cat, 20/12/2023 8:28

"Massa's complaint should be acted upon (before a court orders it), but I cannot think of any fair way to determine who should receive points for the race, so the race result should be cancelled, and points for the race revoked. Than, the result of the championship should be recalculated."

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6. Posted by kenji, 20/12/2023 2:27

"@Spindoctor...there may well have been numerous other incidents that altered the final outcomes but I certainly can't recall any completely 100% verified conspiracy to defraud like the Singappore GP. Todt in particular states that the 'race was rigged'. That and BE's admission form the basis for a decision to overturn the results in retrospect. It's quite easy to dismiss this episode by pointing out the frailty/weakness of human decision making, win some lose some. But this issue is different insofar as the decision was in effect a pre planned contract of inducement between members of one team and implimented without hesitation as per that plan. The FIA should be backing Massa without fear or favour. This is the greatest example I can recall where the 'reputation of the organisation' has been put into serious doubt. It needs to be rectified in Massa's favour"

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7. Posted by Spindoctor, 19/12/2023 15:22

"Very disappointing nonsense here. Various F1 seasons have been decided by various dirty doings, sometimes the offenders or incompetents are punished, sometimes not. Sport is a human activity & hence its outcomes also fallible, just like the participants.

Massa was peeved by the result in 2008, but no more, perhaps than others have been by similar injustices. His biggest problem is that overturning Singapore contemporaneously might have altered the strategies of many participants - thus possibly altering results like a stack of collapsing dominoes. We'll never know. Trying to drop that result deprives all participants except Massa of opportunity to improve their standings.

It's unfortunate that he lost 2008 WDC by 1 point, but some you win, some you don't. Not understanding that means you should steer clear of playing...."

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8. Posted by raimon_d, 18/12/2023 19:20

"He had 12 years to dig into it, and did NOTHING ... why now? Does he want BS in trouble?"

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9. Posted by Simon in Adelaide, 18/12/2023 3:58

"Who was President of the FIA after Max Mosely and he did not know ????

"

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10. Posted by kenji, 18/12/2023 2:03

"When two or more people organise/manipulate the result of a major sporting result that is latterly proved to have been fabricated/false, then that is the base requirement needed for proof that a conspiracy has been entered into/formed and subsequently prosecuted. As well it more or less throws shade over the reputation of Charlie Whiting who it appears was in on the denial?. Now that the truth has apparently been leaked surely the results must be altered to reflect the truth of what happened during that event. To brush this under the FIA carpet would be total denial of justice and Massa deserves to be recognised as the true WDC. Doing nothing just allows corruption to go unpunished. If this case results in Massa getting his rightful result then does it open the way, as many have suggested, for Hamilton/Mercedes to pursue the '21 Abu Dhabi result? Mercedes have the same rights as any other competitor and so far they have done nothing but snipe from the sidelines without launching a legal challenge. Says it all ATM. More to come....."

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11. Posted by Burton, 17/12/2023 17:28

"I guess that in 2038 he will have an opinion about Spa and AD '21...not that poor lowly clerk Jean can say much, mind, maybe "who? Me? I just worked there!"."

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Todt: 2008 Singapore result should have been cancelled

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