Ferrari deny Massa told to cause Hamilton crash
2011 Singapore Grand Prix
Massa and Hamilton clashed in Singapore
Ferrari have denied Felipe Massa was encouraged to provoke the collision with Lewis Hamilton in Singapore.
Massa’s engineer Rob Smedley urged him to “hold Hamilton as much as we can. Destroy his race as much as we can.”
Ferrari’s latest anonymous ‘Horse Whisperer’ column states: “It might not have been the most politically correct choice of word, but it definitely carried no malicious intent.”
It adds: “This exhortation to Felipe came at the exit to turn five on lap 11 of the race, at the end of which both the Ferrari man and Hamilton were due to come in to the pits together.
“In other words, it had nothing to do with the collision between Felipe and Lewis that happened on the following lap.”
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Image © Singapore GP/Sutton
Err Bob said on 4th October 2011, 23:39
I think the point being missed here is that for a long time we have known that Massa is a tail gunner in Ferrari, along with Barrichello and Irvine, but this is a actual voice com to a driver telling them (surely there is a voice above smedley who decides things)that there job is to ruin the driver behind them there race. And this is from a team campaining for a 3 drivers per team system.
Trenthamfolk (@trenthamfolk) said on 5th October 2011, 22:03
I think we’re there with you, but the Ferrari fanatics won’t admit it… they know it though, they know it…
craig-o (@craig-o) said on 5th October 2011, 5:55
Just a thought…
If Smedley asked Massa to ‘Destroy Hamilton’s race’ which resulted in a collision which did indeed (as well as his own) in a literal manner, does that mean whenever every race engineer asks their driver to ‘Push’, do they expect a baby to come out or something?
Malibu_GP said on 5th October 2011, 10:22
I meant unimportant in relation to opinions, certainly not invaluable