The Deliberate Crash That Changed Formula 1 

Massa has stated he doesn't want the Championship overturned, it's too late for that. He has stated that he simply wants answers from the FIA and this was the only way to get them.

Fun fact: Alonso went on to win the next race in Japan completely on merit, so this was made redundant, contractually-wise

The thing I find amazing is how Alonso has been a mere bystander at more than one of F1's biggest controversies... always a beneficiary of them but seemingly never knowing or being involved

The hardest part about all this is that the people who benefited (or lost) the most from this crash were all innocent parties. It's so much easier when its the winner who has cheated.

*Hill, Senna and Prost slowly emerging from the abyss after hearing championships can be overturned*

I suggest looking into NASCAR’s 2013 “spin-gate” scandal. Basically, it was NASCAR’s own version of “crash-gate” and it also resulted in some wild and weird af officiating decisions.

I understand Massa's point, and as a brazilian, that title still haunts me. But I honestly don't think anything will come out of it and Massa himself is not actually trying to be called world champ. It's about the message, accountability. It's about F1 owning their screw ups and actually doing something so it won't happen again.

Fun fact: After announcing his suspensions of the race, Brundle walked around the paddock with 3 eyes

11:24 One of the weirdest things after all of this, was Romain Grosjean binning the 2009 Renault into the exact same section of wall

2 things were left out: 1. Renault did this, because Alonso's contract said, he can leave the team after 1 year, if he don't win any race. 2. This idea of pit-before-safety-car came after the German GP where the same happened. Piquet went to pit, safety car needed to come in and he was on podium. But as SC is random, Renault had the plan to use the second driver for it.

Surprised you didn’t mention what Nelson Jr did afterwards. “And so, being shunned by F1, Piquet left for a simpler, less-controversial series, one where skill and finesse are required, and intentional crashes just don’t happen. NASSSCAHHHHH”

Michael Schmidt from Auto Motor und Sport recently revealed more to the timeline. Nelson Piquet jr. confessed it to him directly after the race on the condition that he won’t say anything. He realized what he had done and was really scared to call his father. Also 50% of the journalists suspected that this was planned but didn’t have any proof. Nelson Piquet sr. informed Charlie Whiting about what his son did during the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend but him and Bernie Ecclestone decided to keep it secret in order to not put the sport in a bad light. When Piquet junior was dropped in 2009 his father called Michael Schmidt to write a story about it to revenge Briatore. He however advised him to go to Max Mosley first because he was still in the dark and it would be very bad to learn it from the press. After it came out Max Mosley thanked Michael Schmidt that he told Piquet senior to tell him first before the rest of the press.

I know everyone says Massa would be champion if the race was cancelled or Renault didn't fix it, but... Massa would also be champion if Ferrari could just figure out how to do a pitstop correctly.. 15 years on, they're still figuring it out.

Crashgate and it's outcome still hurts. I was a huge Massa fan in 2008 and him losing the title in Brazil broke my 8-year old heart.

I was living in Singapore at the time and was at this race. Everyone was just so buzzed to have F1 cars racing the streets for the first time. The "accident" also happened right in front of where I was sitting at the Marina Bay stand, so close I always remember the smell of the burnt rubber. We all just thought it was an odd place to crash, a low speed corner. Nobody thought anything until it all came out with Piquet's admittance. Crazy stuff. F1 golden rule....you never ever deliberately crash.

Not entirely related but I still think it’s mad that Carlos essentially said deliberate crashes still happen and nothing came of it

For people who didn't watch F1 in the refueling days: the reason Massa got a penalty for dragging the fuel hose down the pitlane is because whenever the fuel hose was attached, the car's fuel system was entirely open. A tiny mishap would have meant Massa's car, and basically the entire pitlane blowing up, which thankfully, did not happen. This was also among the final nail in the coffin for refueling, (also the 2009 Brazilian GP, where Kovalainen's McLaren also got released while the fuel hose was still attached, spraying Kimi's car with fuel and igniting it for a few seconds) people have been calling for it to be removed from F1 as it made races more dull, most overtakes happening in the pitlane, and there have been way too many accidents for it to be kept in the sport. The whole "refueling makes races more exciting" argument is void, because that's mostly just nostalgia.

As a brazilian, this season's still painfull to remember. I think Massa should seek some kind of compensation if proven the FIA already knew about the "strategy" before the end of the season, but I think the results are set in stone. 15 years is just too long. If he tried to revert the results in 2009, when everybody was feeling sorry of him, that might be different, but right now? Move on.

Briatore is so weird that being in the passenger seat with james may was utterly terrifying for him

I loved the reference to the Tripoli grand Prix. What a scandal that was

Its impossible for F1 to be fair regarding team punishments as third parties who are not involved in the incident can benefit or be negatively affected by it. Great video Josh!

*phone rings “Ey Flavio the mad Ladio” “Hey Ciao Nando the mad Lando, how is it going?” “I’m trying to win the Singapore 2008 Grand Prix, but literally can’t right now. What do?” “Dont’t worry, we got you” *phone dials “Pronto, Piquet?” “Yes?” “S🅱️innala” “What does s🅱️innala even mean?” “Ask Seb” “Oh okay. Hey Seb, what does s🅱️innala even mean?” “It’s a meme from the future, you can’t get the reference yet” *awkward silence “Just crash okay?” “Say no more” -Mattzaba’s depiction of Singapore 2008

Top secret fact: when alonso left mclaren after crashgate, he still had 2 years left on his contract. In order to release him, Ron/McLaren stipulated he could not race for the top 3 in last years (2007) points. He did not go back to renault because they were the only one who WANTED him, in was because it was the only team he was ALLOWED to race for that actually had a shot at running up front. To prove this out, AS SOON as Ferrari could (2010) they bought out Kimis contract and benched him immediately for Alonso, they would have had him in there in 2008 if McLaren hadn't have blocked it.

It's the FIA and Bernie knowing about it aspect that, if I were Massa, I would be most burned by. I'd also remind everyone of the dignity with which he conducted himself in Interlagos after that heartbreaking moment. Whilst I wouldn't want the 2008 title changed at this point, and, the outcome changes to Massa if Singapoor is deleted, but not if renault are excluded, and if Singapoor were deleted, the Lewis/McLaren camp can rightfully say they'd have had to approach things differently. The current situation is deeply unfair to Massa, but changing the title now would be unfair to Lewis. Ultimatly, I doubt the title will ever officially go Massa, but I do hope he gets something from this as an admission he was wronged, and those with the power to make it right did nothing to do so, for thier own ends.

I don’t think you can change the championship in this regard as you have no idea how things might have played out. A different result here may have caused other changes in later races, and could open up a whole can of worms for other championships and change things for people who were blameless That said, you *can* put a monetary figure on how much Massa may have lost in career earnings and can put blame on Bernie and the FIA so… hopefully he goes after them

That was legit my first ever formula 1 race I watched… literally

I just realized when you said piquet that our local paintball field is owned by the piquet family and has a little racing museum. They bought out the previous owner a few years ago and re vamped it. It’s in royal palm beach

Here's a small, personal story about that day: I was watching that race at home, on the "teley", some of you like to say. At the time, I was working on a motorsport magazine (no longer exists) in my place. No problemo, all is well, Piquet Jr crashes, Alonso goes to pits, Massa gets out "doing an Albers" (watch 2007 French GP to see what I'm talking about.) The cars were still behind the safety car when I get... not one, but TWO phone calls - one from my cellphone, other by my land phone. At certain time, I was holding both, one in my hand (there are witnesses who would sworn seen it) ad both were saying the same: that Piquet Jr had crashed on a deliberate manner. On the spot. Less than three minutes after it happen. I couldn't believe it, but they were telling me. Race over, Alonso won and... I wasn't hearing nothing about those suspicions, not even from the reporters from the track. A few hours later, at the desk, I asked a guy who was there, a brazilian, and asked of any rumours of crashing on purpose. He said "no", I discussed my phone calls at home, and said "I'm gonna write something". I did, but on my blog and in a cryptic manner. So, Bernie's claims are utter BS. He said that just for publicity, he wants people not to forget him. Then, Alonso wins again in Japan, and the issue is forgotten because of the Hamilton/Massa fight for the title. All of this happen because of a whistleblower called Nelson Piquet Sr, when his son is fired, and tells to a Globo reporter, Reginaldo Leme. If somebody knew a thing, they were with tight lips, even among the paddock reporters.

Honestly. I hope Massa actually goes for it. i'm going to have laughing material for years if he actually becomes World Champion 15 years later.

I gotta feeling they’ll be a “Part 2” down the road

I don't think Massa will get anything out of it if he decides to go forward. I think that the most that can happen is Alonso being stripped of his win, which makes no change to the championship's outcome. I do understand his anger, though. What I'm angry about is that Briatore and Symonds were eventually allowed back into the F1.

It’s content like this that puts me off making content as i cannot make stuff this good. From the editing to the script. Amazing work.

I feel much the same about the 2008 championship as I do about the 2021 championship. Do I feel there was many shenanigans that happened that went against the one that lost the championship? Absolutely. But that door was left wide open by the failures of the team and or driver throughout the year to secure a singular position on track. There's no promise that their fueling rig system wouldn't have failed at the next pit stop regardless. It is a shame though, Massa was a proper wheel man and does not get near the recognition from the era he drove in compared to everyone who got away with a championship

Both Lewis and Massa made plenty of mistakes and could have easily the championship with races to spare ie Lewis in Canada and Japan. Massa in Monaco, Silverstone and Hockenheim.

Possible hot take: if they change the 2008 title, surely that sets a precedent for changing world titles where the rules were broken. Thing about how many titles were won way back by drivers crashing into their title rivals. Also, would that precedent be expanded to 2021. To be clear, what Renault did was wrong but if you were to stick to the "change it" logic then way too many world titles would have to be given to someone else right?

I think it would be difficult to say this race doesn't count because the points given on that day affected everything that happened afterwards. Ferrari and McLaren (and everyone else) would have acted differently with different points

I think Bernie knows what he was doing when he made that statement "Lewis got lucky", that's your go to person after everyone who benefitted from it mostly Alonso but all you think is, Lewis.

This is foolish by Massa. Who says the pit stop wouldn’t have gone wrong without the crash and safety car? That Ferrari light system played up all season. Hamilton still managed to end up on the podium as well and he was running second prior to the crash… Massa was also gifted the Belgium GP win. Imagine how Lewis felt after having that taken away in such a ridiculous manner? I think Massa needs to find some purpose in his life after F1 and Bernie needs to piss off - he’s obviously bored and playing games.

If nothing else, I want a boatload of money to come Massa's way.

it's a good day when big daddy J posts

People like to say Hamilton was gifted the championship by Glock…when in actuality Felipe ultimately lost desperately valuable points on three big occasions. Spa when he crashed out, Hungary when his engine spat the dummy near the end, and Singapore where Ferrari being Ferrari happened. A combination of sheer bad luck, utter jackassery from Ferrari and his own personal mistakes. Without that Massa would’ve and should’ve rightly been champion in ‘08. That being said it’s not Lewis’ fault. It’s just the way the cards fell.

Massa doesn't have a leg to stand on. The fact is that his Pit Crew cost him any chance at the Podium. It would be impossible to prove, one way, or the other, that Fuel Hose would, or wouldn't, have happened without the intentional crash. Absent being able to prove that, he has nothing. Sad for Massa, truly, but, as they say, them's the breaks.

FINALLY THE CRASHGATE VIDEO

Content just keep getting better and better amazing work josh

i feel like in a perfect timeline (even as a disgusting max redbull fan) we would have Felipe win the championship in 2008, and the entire 2021 abu dhabi scandal removed and hamilton would still get his 7 championships.

EDIT: I wrote this comment mid-way through the video. Please watch the whole video before commenting below. Original comment: Maybe people don't know this, but Massa filed a request for reevaluating the 2008 WDC result. Lots of comments sound like Massa is past this, he's not. This video is important and right on time.

Really enjoyed how you looped back to the opening question. Very well structured story here 👍🏽

Somewhat disappointing that there was no discussion of the points results for that year, or what the standings would have looked like if this race were nullified. Easy enough to look up I suppose, but definitely an important aspect that should have been covered.

I imagine Massa deserved the Championship that year, but knowing full well that Lewis will not let go without a fight especially considering relinquishing the title will mean he has one less WC to rave about. I expect a very popcorn worthy next few months.

What's so crazy is how had Alonso's car didn't die in Q2 the previous day, they wouldn't have gone ahead with the plan 😂😭.

your sarcasm is on another level

how do people not understand that this is incredibly different than Hill, Senna, Hamilton-Verstappen astounds me. Bernie came clean in an interview that the FIA knew about the accident in 2008 but they had reported they only knew about it in 2009 in order to protect the integrity of the sport. This effectively means the FIA denied Massa the right to protest (which lasts up until 2 weeks after the conclusion of the season), which is a clear violation of the rules EDIT: I do hope Massa gets his title if it is indeed proven that the FIA knew about it in 2008, thus knowingly denying Massa’s right to protest. The whole race should have been abandoned. Just look at the Calciopoli. I have the utmost respect for Hamilton, but the race’s legitimacy was ruined and it should be nulled as to show competitors that there is zero tolerance for match-fixing

Briatore's manager ban was very costly for Kovalainen. He was threatened by Max Mosley with a certificate which had his signature to cut ties with Briatore to even maintain his super license. Kovalainen did so but Alonso and Webber didn't and nothing happened to them. Briatore took Kovalainen to court for a contractual breach and before it Mosley said the certificate was void.

In F1 there is a posthumous world champion, the great Jochen Rindt. Now there is also a screwed world champion, the unfortunate Felipe Massa.

“Quaking like a pug on Angel Dust”… that’s too funny bro! Excellent job. Great upload.

The way your character gets forged after pulling something like this… you know you are the goat, regardless of the outcome.

This will never get overturned because there's no way to prove that Massa would have won that race.

You have to feel for Nelson Piquet, Jr. in this situation. Essentially blackmailed into doing something illegal to keep a drive he subsequently lost anyway. Even though this would have been very hard for him to do, I have often wondered what would have happened if he a) Didn't crash at all, or b) Just pulled off the track on the parade lap and not started the race

Great video, liked and subbed! The narration was fantastic. Dramatic and exciting! I can't wait to see what else you have.

This video is written reeeaaallly well! It's like Veritasium video level of writing...

See, my argument against why the result shouldn't be changed is because even though Massa had to stop because of the SC his team still made the mistake with the fuel hose. Yes they were essentially forced to stop because of the SC, the mistake that Ferrari made could have also happened at a normal pit stop, a very similar thing happened at the European race the next year if I remember correctly.

I still find it very VERY hard to believe that Alonso didn't know about it, especially after Spygate. Also, Hamilton should not have been punished in Spa so honours even I guess.

Man! I like everytime you post. Keep up the good work

2008 was one of the most exciting year for me, F1 came to singapore, its was my first tiem watching F1 live at home and it kick started that F1 fanboy in me

I've got nothing but respect for Massa wanting a full airing of the truth. And I'm not a Hamilton fan, but the results should not be changed. Briatore and Symonds should have been permanently banned, but other than that there's no one you could take any action against.

I say we put Felipe and Lewis in KTM X-Bows and in a 20 lap race in the red bull ring, they decide the 2008 title. 🚬🧐

This video just came on by chance, on autoplay. Mon, March 11th 2023. I googles Bernie ecclestone to see how old he is. Under his 93 years of age it says that 49 min ago, massa sues f1 and Bernie. Crazy!

This video should be re-titled as "The Deliberate Crash That Changed Formula 1 - Nicholas Latifi, Abu Dhabi, 2021".

Bit of a fun fact: Piquet Sr., after everything has gone down he went to the Brazilian F1 broadcaster at the time, talked with the main, and most respected, F1 journalist in the entirety of the 200 million population banana land, and told him everything, of which he did make the facts public during the broadcast of the 2009 Belgium GP for the first time ever around the world. F1 in Brazil is transmitted on open broadcast nation wide by the way. Kinda hard to ignore when you have a shit bomb that hit the fan really hard and spread in every direction possible that you can imagine and not imagine at the same time.

Justice for Massa

Interesting video! Liked the fact that production quality improved a lot, maintaining the same old Josh :3

I really wish massa had won the championship that year

Super well made video❤️ love your content, keep up the awesome work mate

Great summary of all the facts, and superbly presented. Thank you.

11:05 made my heart jump, it sounded like my wake up alarm 😭😭

Only a few days ago the German motor sport outlet "auto motor sport" (YT channel ams.F1) made a long video about this where the legendary main reporter Michael Schmidt said that after the race ended several people had already known that the crash was on purpose but they only told him off the record and he couldn't report about it. In addition, Piquet was set to get a seat at Torro Rosso, but somehow he was convinced to actually try and stay at Renault and Briatore made him do that fake crash to guarantee a seat. That was foolish of course and his F1 career ended after doing such a stunt.

Hard to feel sorry twice for Hamilton. He got "lucky" again since mcclaren was faster after stealing info from ferrari in 2007. Strange enough both he and Alonso were involved again.

The NASCAR equivalent to this incident is Spingate, where Clint Bowyer intentionally spun out to cause a caution, in order to make sure his teammate Martin Truex Jr., would be in the second wild card slot of the 2013 Chase for the Sprint Cup.

EXCELLENT work Josh. 👍👍🏁

So gutted for Massa, still makes me angry thinking about it. Massa was always my favourite

Felipe deserves a teat 😂😂😂😂

Crazy how Nelson Jr, Alonso and Renault went unpunished, only Briatore got punished.

I may adopt the characterization of understatement as being "a violently British way of saying...." things.

Josh's content is getting alot better in my opinion like I always thought it was good but last couple of videos have been hitting the spot

The only question that matters is: what will Ferrari do about it?

Fantastic video. Keep up the good work.

13:37 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Imagine if the race got invalidated and Felipe got the title: +Lewis down to 6 +Schumi the only one with 7 +One more for Ferrari To good to happen.

Ecclestone seems to have some personal beef with Hamilton and appears to be using this bombshell to 'prove' he isn't a driver on the same level as Schumacher despite them having 7 titles apiece because his first title should have gone to Massa. Which is all well and good, but if you play those kind of games Lewis should get the 2021 title and Schumacher should give his '94 title to Hill so in actual fact Hamilton remains on 7 titles but Michael drops to 6.

Good work as always! Great video!

The editing has improved a lot. 👍

This decided an F1 career and a championship

Felipe really doesn't wanna let this go. Besides, Lewis didn't have anything to do with all of this so he doesn't deserve to lose his Championship

All because Nelson could not imagine another way to crash with more creativity, credibility and also without practicing the crash a lap earlier.

petition to bring back singapore sling shot

If only Kubica pitted in the same lap as Rosberg...

I don’t feel indifferent with Alonso. There’s no way he didn’t know about it before hand. Also how did Bernie find out and who else knew? I bet the entire paddock knew well before Piquet Jr came out. F1 is very tight-knit.

7:24 "known to you and ME" is correct grammar. A great many people get that wrong because they've been taught to always say "John and I", but in fact that is incorrect. Simple and correct rule: If you remove the other person from the sentence, it should still be grammatically correct: "known to you and I", would become "known to I", which is wrong.

BMPH did a great video on this, I recommend watching it to anyone who hasn't seen!

Worst corruption in F1 until Abu Dhabi 2021.