Baffled as to why the 'Crashgate' case ever got to caught, Bernie Ecclestone denies manipulation of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.
The case in question being Felipe Massa's challenge that the (then) F1 boss, along with the FIA, conspired to cover up the manipulation of the event.
Massa was leading the race when Nelson Piquet Jnr crashed out, thereby bringing out the Safety Car. Piquet's teammate Fernando Alonso (remember him?) took the opportunity to pit, as did many others including Massa. However, as the Brazilian headed down the pitlane he was forced to stop as the refuelling hose was still attached to his car. The resultant delay not only cost him the victory, according to his legal challenge it cost him the world championship.
In the final race of the season, Massa appeared to have won the title. However, in the final corner of the final lap, Lewis Hamilton passed Timo Glock for fifth, enough to secure the crown.
Almost a year later, after being dropped by Renault, Piquet claimed that he had been ordered to deliberately crash in Singapore, in order to aid his teammate.
Whilst initially rigorously denying the claim, Renault subsequently relented and following an investigation by the FIA team boss Flavio Briatore was banned from the sport as was Director of Engineering Pat Symonds, with the French team also being disqualified from the sport, albeit suspended for two years.
Briatore was banned from F1 permanently and Symonds for five years, but both bans were subsequently overturned.
Along with Spygate, Crashgate was one of the sport's scandals that dominated the front pages, but in time it died down.
Then, in 2023, in an interview with Germany's F1-Insider, Ecclestone was quoted as saying that he and (then) FIA president Max Mosley were aware of what had happened in Singapore.
"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," said the former F1 supremo. "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."
Fine with everyone except Massa that is, for the Brazilian then began his legal challenge.
"Accountability is key to preventing future fraud," the Brazilian told The Times. "Those entrusted with protecting the sport directly violated their duties, and they cannot be allowed to benefit from concealing their own misconduct.
"Such conduct is unacceptable in any sphere of life," he added, "especially in a sport followed by millions, including children. We will pursue this to the very end in order to achieve a just and fair outcome, for myself, for motorsport in Brazil, and for the sport as a whole."
Ecclestone was quick to deny the claim.
"There is no way in the world anyone could change or cancel that race," he told The Times. "There is always something going on where someone would like to cancel it if they could.
"To try to persuade the president of the FIA to call a special meeting where the FIA would have to cancel the race... there were no provisions for that to happen," he insisted.
"Max knew there was not enough evidence at the time to do anything. It only started later when young Nelson decided he wanted to say something when he found out he was not going to get a seat for the following year. Max was not saying we should cover this up but just that it was not good for the image of Formula 1."
Asked about his comments to F1-Insider, he said: "This was an interview I gave to someone in Germany. And the guy at the time, his English wasn't that good and he was taking notes, and it was picked up by someone in England.
"The lawyers for myself, the FIA and F1 do not understand how it can be heard in a court," he added.
The case gets underway on October 28.
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