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Former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone claims that Felipe Massa was ‘robbed’ of Lewis Hamilton’s world title in 2008, explaining that he still considers Michael Schumacher to stand alone at the top of the all-time Drivers’ Championship list despite what the statistics show.
Hamilton became the youngest F1 world champion in history when he defeated Massa by a single point in 2008. The Brit, who was 23 years old at the time, crossed the line in third with Felipe Massa finishing outside the points in Singapore.
The season finale was tainted by controversy, however, as Renault were found to have instructed Nelson Piquet Jr. to deliberately crash on lap 14 in an effort to help team-mate Fernando Alonso win the race, which he eventually did.
The scandal, known as ‘crashgate’, landed Renault a two-season conditional suspension after an FIA investigation but Hamilton’s maiden world title was left untouched in the history books.
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The 38-year-old has since gone on to notch a total of seven world titles, putting him level with Schumacher at the top of the all-time charts, but Ecclestone claims that he wishes the saga had been handled differently.
“We wanted to protect the sport and save it from a huge scandal,” the 92-year-old told F1-Insider. “At the time, the rule was that a world championship classification was untouchable after the FIA awards ceremony at the end of the year. So Hamilton was offered the trophy and everything was fine.”
The Mercedes star was overtaken on the final lap by his Red Bull rival after FIA race director Michael Masi took the controversial decision to call the safety car in just before the end of the race.
Masi was eventually axed following an investigation into the incident, while Hamilton fell well short of exacting revenge last season. The Silver Arrows are poised to have another crack at this year’s top prizes, although their pre-season test suggested that they still have plenty of ground to make up.
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