Nelson Piquet Jnr, Renault., Singapore, 2008

Piquet Jnr: Massa blames me for lost championship

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Nelson Piquet Junior has revealed that Felipe Massa still blames him for his lost 2008 drivers’ championship.

Massa came within a point of winning the season and was leading the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix when Piquet Jnr deliberately crashed, bringing out the safety car.

When much of the field took the opportunity to pit there were problems and Massa drove off with his fuel hose still attached and ended the race in 13th place. Piquet Jnr’s teammate Fernando Alonso won the race, with Lewis Hamilton in third place.

Piquest Jnr told Portuguese-language magazine Istoe, “Massa was very upset with me because he thinks, to this day, that he lost the 2008 championship because of me.”

“It is no use arguing that he had a DNF in Hungary, that he and Ferrari made mistakes. Not to mention his lack of luck. For the love of God, that last lap in Interlagos was pure luck for (Lewis) Hamilton (who was the champion) and bad luck to him.

“But he is still very upset. I have never talked to him again. We stumble upon each other every now and then, but we don’t keep on touch.”

Piquet Jnr also criticised Massa’s actions during this year’s German Grand Prix, saying:

Generally you’d want to make such arrangements in a subtle manner. At the end of the straight, a driver breaks a little early into a corner, let the team mate close the gap and overtake. Alright, with the fight for the first place it is harder to make it subtle, but it didn’t have to be so blatant. There is where Massa surprised me.

He wanted to expose Ferrari’s team game to cause a bit of a mess. Because the situation itself is normal. The most common code is the one Ferrari uses, that your team mate is faster than you. Massa understood, but wanted to make sure that, if it was for him, there would be no overtaking.

Ferrari will never miss the opportunity to let one of its drivers close the gap to the championship leaders. If Massa does not want that to happen, he needs to accept he is slower and race faster. He needs to work to get faster than Alonso. There’s no other way.
Piquet Jnr

Nelson Piquet Junior’s spokesperson has confirmed that this translation is accurate.

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63 comments on “Piquet Jnr: Massa blames me for lost championship”

  1. Oh boy !
    I am awaiting the forum reactions to that one with great anticipation ! (Grin…)

    1. i read this a couple of days ago on that portuguese magazine portuguese from Portugal it could be from a “portuguese-language magazine” from angola brazil Mozambique timor guine st tome e principe cabo verde macau

  2. I read this story on my F1 Mobile app last night and I must say their photo of Piquet Jr. looked very smug.

  3. Blaming is useless……
    Facing the truth is the best solution.

  4. he’s right to feel bad about the manipulation of that race…

    i still blame Piquet for being such a clown… he was rubbish before Singapore and he’s still rubbish after it… nothing changed

    1. “the team orders rule on f1” webber

      1. there’s a tiny little difference between crashing and risking peoples lives and letting your team mate through

        1. I’m not so sure, I mean, yes it’s worse because you can hurt people, but I think from a sporting perspective, the rigging of a race overshadows that.

          A lot of people enjoyed saying how evil Schumacher was for his move on Rubens, And I agree, it was wrong, but when something goes wrong in F1, that’s what it should be, drivers getting too rough in fighting for position, not teams having the race rigged, that shouldn’t exist.

  5. “Generally you’d want to make such arrangements in a subtle manner. ”

    Yes, Nelson. You would know all about that, wouldn’t you?

    “There is where Massa surprised me.
    He wanted to expose Ferrari’s team game to cause a bit of a mess.”

    Kettle, black, pot, calling. If there is one person who needs to keep their mouth firmly clamped shut, it is Nelsinho. Disgraceful little man. Go away.

    1. Maybe, just maybe, you should read the text before who said it, because the person who said it might, just, have a point.

      Why are all of you hating Piquet? Of course, it´s because of crashgate. Ok. So what he did was very, very stupid. Or extreamly stupid. But before cutting his head, take a moment to think about WHY he did it. Imagine yourself as a young driver who finished runner up in GP2 before entering F1 in the same team as a returning double-world champion, who gets all the attencion and updates from your team. You´re struggeling and your self-confidence is going downwards. Quickly. Do you want to be yet annother driver who was out of the sport after one season? No, becouse this is what you’ve always dreamt of. You still beleave you are good enough, and if you just can get a car that suits you, like hopefully next years car. You just want another chance. Then you get the chance to crash for a new contract. You desperetely want to stay and prove how good you are.

      Sure it was the wrong desicion. But it isn’t as easy as just saying he should stop living because of it. After all, he didn’t kill anyone.

      1. completely agree with OEL, people are far too quick to judge Piquet. He was a better driver than people give him credit for and found himself in a desperate situation and did something to try and save his career that was wrong, but in the circumstances it was understandable why he would do it

        1. Still, he’s criticising Massa for not being craftier about breaking the regulations on behalf of his team. Isn’t this precisely the lesson he was supposed to have learnt? Don’t break the rules just because your team asks you to.

          1. yeah but nelson would have proberly understood why he did it and was just saying cover it up a little so it doesn’t ruin the fans day and the teams season.

      2. Absolutely. I agree – this is not an important matter, but it is something I feel fairly strongly about, hence my slightly uncharitable words above.

        Maybe I was slightly unfair to Piquet Jr. However, let me set out my basis for my criticism, so that you can see where I am coming from.

        Nelson Piquet cheated. He broke the rules. Moreover, he did so in such a way as to cause actual danger to his colleagues (the safety car is not used lightly – it is only brought out in cases where it would be dangerous not to. Hence, his crash was dangerous to other people.) Now, ok it was not his idea, but there was still a conscious decision on his part. I understand the pressure he was under, but I still feel that I would (I hope) have acted differently.

        Secondly, having done ‘the wrong thing’, he kept quiet about it. It served him well to do so – he got a new contract, he kept racing. Then, however, as soon as it did not suit him to keep quiet, he started telling stories. Not only that, but he was quite careful to distance himself from the blame, ending in a deal being done to absolve him whilst costing one of F1’s finest engineers his career. That is double standards – I approve of the fact that he did put his hand up and say what he had done, although I wish he had done it earlier, but I feel very strongly that, having done so, he should have laid himself open for a share of the blame. Maybe he would not, eventually, have received it, but he should have been there, in the metaphorical dock, in front of the WMSC, answering some difficult questions.

        So, that is the background to my dislike of the younger N Piquet. As for his recent comments, well, they seem horrendously misguided. He seems to be trying to say that Massa should either have stood up for himself, something that NPJ did not do, with results previously discussed, or, once he had decided to make the move he should have done it subtly and without complaining. As I said above, Piquet did not do that, either. He is giving advice that he comprehensively failed to take himself.

        Now, having taken a couple of deep breaths between my last comment and this, I must say that I am starting to pity Piquet. It must be a terrible thing to achieve your life’s ambition, and then to find it about to be taken away from you. I imagine that you, or I, would probably be prepared to go to quite extreme lengths to hang on to it.

        However, he did something wrong. When you do something wrong, you should apologise, try to make amends and do your utmost to prevent the situation from repeating. Piquet, however, has done none of these things. He has not said he is sorry – in fact, on the evidence of these comments he doesn’t seem to think he has done much wrong – he has not tried to rectify the situation – he seems determined to antagonise Massa who, if there is one, is the closest we can find to a victim (from a racing point of view) from the situation – and he is still racing with the same group of advisers around him telling him what to say.

        He needs to have a serious think about who he is and if it is his words related above he needs to think seriously before making any comments ever again. If they are, as I suspect, someone else’s words he is using as his own, then I feel very sorry for him and plead with him to put as much distance between that person and himself as possible.

        Sorry for the number of words, but I hope that explains my thoughts!

        1. I’m with you completely! Thank you for sparing my rant! ;-)

        2. That is very well put MikeSRandall, I almost couldn’t agree more (although I right away felt a certain pity for Piquet Jr.).

          Finally, I would like to say: I would really prefer that team orders are clear and obvious rather than disguised so we need never know. No “doing it more subtle” please, at least be honest about it. But then don’t do it lightly, honoring the fact that the WDC should be between the drivers, with team orders only near the end of the season if then.

      3. Its just a shame that he didn’t have a former driver to talk to about it beforehand. Maybe a former WDC? Oh just a minute……..

  6. I dislike Nelsino purely because he is a cheat. I really just can’t stand it when he speaks.

    1. he’s the cheat? He’s a pawn. Briatore and Alonso are the cheats

  7. Interesting comments from a driver involved in one of the most disgusting acts in the history of motor racing. Piquet Jnr has a unique way of making himself sound way more talented than he actually is, maybe he believes he is as good as his father was or has been made to believe that over the years.
    Felipe Massa losing the 2008 championship was down to several reasons and not just the Singapore Grands Prix, but however you look at it, the resulting safety car period due to Piquet’s ‘crash’ certainly helped Hamilton’s cause.
    To be honest, I would be amazed if anybody in F1 spoke to Nelson Piquet Jnr. The boy is damaged goods!

    1. What I found really funny, was Piquet criticising Massa for not disguising the Germany team orders a little better. Piquet couldn’t make his crash any more obvious as well, he floored the throttle after he had lost control of the car… a move that would be made by only a complete idiot.

      However, I think Massa needs to get over that 2008 season. I really do not think a car crashing intentionally would make a difference to the fuel hose being dislodged from his car. That was a Ferrari electronics and driver mistake.

      1. The point is that Massa would not have been in the pits to suffer that misfortune if Piquet had not deliberately crashed. I can’t blame Massa at all for feeling that way, if that race had run normally he would have atleast been in the points and that would have been all he needed to be champion.

        1. He would have had to pit regardless though, it just affected when he made the pitstop

          1. The stop was rushed because the cars were bunched with the pace car being out. It was precisely the rushed nature of the pitstop that lead to the mistake being made.

  8. Don’t report crap coming out of Nelson Piquet Jr.’s mouth. He’s just looking for publicity.

  9. they should shut his mouth up as they did with his F1 career. Piquet Jr. is as fake as a push-up wonderbra.

  10. *waits brits to blame it all on Alonso*

    1. *Waits Ferrari fans to write rubbish*

      *Oh wait, doesn’t have to*

      1. *waits for assumptions to be made about the Brits and then all ferrari fans. Oh wait… :P

        1. *waits for the inevitable invocation of F1’s equivalent of Godwin’s Law, re: Hamilton vs Alonso…*

          Oops…

      2. Sweeping generalisations galore!

    2. Alonso got of pretty much scot free, and the evidence IS their should someone want to blame him…

      And for the third time, I still can’t understand why Flavio gets away with it…

  11. Piquet does have a point. There’s no guarantee Massa would have won the race without the Saftey Car, or that Hamilton would have left himself so vulnerable in 4th for most of the race, or even that (as I contend) Lewis would have been so rash at Turn 1 in Fuji (having more to lose if Massa had won, so I argue). And if Ferrari are favouring Alonso it is because he’s the one ahead, and if Massa had won the title last year it would have been because his own team-mate let him by in the penultimate race.

    1. … But Massa is still in it this year, and it isn’t the second last race…

      But I agree with you that, this is F1, so many things can go right or wrong, saying I lost it because of *X* reason… *grumbles*

  12. That was a good one from Piquet. Massa is just another whiner.

  13. Get over it Massa, this isn’t why you lost the title. Lewis could have easily lost it and then blamed all sorts of things.

    1. not least spa 08 – already regreting opening that can of worms

    2. Tommy it’s Piquet who is doing the interview. Massa isn’t the one banging on about it. He lost a title right at the end, even if Sing hadn’t happened he’d never get over it just like Lewis will still regret 07.

    3. This article speaks about Piquet and his pathetic attempt at trying to be important again.

      It speaks little about Felipe.

  14. in fairness to piquet…it was so subtle that we didnt find out about it for a year. Still though, Massa should have a right to hate him. I think it went to the right person (Lewis, given his performances since and the year before) but equally Massa deserved it too after a few great drives and being so gracious in defeat.

    How times have changed for him! Get him out of Ferrari so he’s given a chance.

    As an aside…interesting how Alonso was directly involved in his most recent and also 2008 downfall. Sigh

  15. I don’t see what else Nelson expects. Yes, Massa should get over it but I think it’s harsh to expect him actually to.

    Drivers love being in control, Piquet took that away from the race. The champion is the one who deals with it best and Ferrrari let Massa down that race. Massa can accept his mistakes because they were his mistakes but having that race taken out of his hands to some extent was cruel. He lost the title at the last corner, had it snatched away like noone ever has before. Yes, he should move on but can anyone else say they’d get over it so quick? Also, please note it’s Nelson saying this and ge’s the one bringing up, it isn’t Felipe banging that tired, same old drum.

    1. Yes, all very true. It would be good for Massa if he could put it definitely behind him, but I suspect it will haunt him still – especially with this year being effectively second to Alonso.

      Although it was probably in response to a question from the interviewer about his relation with Massa,
      I think that it is a bit rich from Piquet Jr. to be annoyed at him for not wanting to be buddies after that. Piquet Jr. really does not seem to want to accept that he did something wrong, and it had consequences for F1 and the people in it.

  16. Massa’s fault. It is true that just one win can go a long way towards winning a championship, but the situation would’ve changed if he had won that race. Massa should look ahead and forget what happened as Piquet’s done. Besides, the drivers fight for the championship during the whole season, and not in one circuit only.

  17. Prisoner Monkeys
    15th August 2010, 23:57

    Of course he blames you, Nelson. You’re the bloody idiot who deliberately crashed his car to fix a race – what were you expecting? Tea and dumplings?

    1. Prisoner Monkeys, that was perfect!!!

      1. I agree with Adam. Good comment PM.

  18. What’s Piquet up to? NASCAR?

    1. Yes from this season he is competing in Nascar.

  19. Piquet is a fool, a cheat and a liar, and a rubbish driver.

  20. In other news, Piquet Jr tries to get people to look at him.

  21. Piquet Jr is a dummy. A crash test dummy. That is all.

  22. hmm.. this was supposed to be a response to someone asking if Piquet is doing NASCAR now.

  23. I don’t think Nelson have any license to talk anything about F1. He should keep his mouth shut.

  24. “Generally you’d want to make such arrangements in a subtle manner.” yeah like crash out of the race so that your teammate wins. much more subtle that way… Piquet Jr. should be banned from motor-sport forever for coming up with the plan in the first place.

  25. Although Nelson Jr. is right, Massa should get over losing 2008 it is perfectly understandable, that Massa is not speaking to him. Massa asked him directly after the GP what happened and a year later got the proof he was right to ask, but got a lie in return. Not something you would get over lightly, even if it was not the sole reason for losing the WDC in 2008.

    It does sound a bit strange to hear Piquet Jr. give advice to Massa about the team order. What he says is very much the same we heard from a lot of (ex)drivers, TO are used frequently, just executed less blatantly than Massa/Ferrari did here.

    Actually in the interview he sounds a lot more like a grown up, than he used to be. His ambition of making an impression in NASCAR is a positive one.

    1. Hm, on re-checking, yes, you are right about those last two sentences. Good for him, but the rest of your post is also spot on.

      The comments from more or less every driver about team orders do show they need to deal with them better. They should not happen mostly during the season, for me, but if they do, they should be clear and honestly admitted, with the commenter able to explain/speculate why they happen, not if they are happening.

  26. The Dutch Bear
    16th August 2010, 9:28

    Of course what Piquet jr. did was wrong. However Massa still would have won the championship if Ferrari hadn’t made a mess of their pitstop (driving away with the fuel hose still atached, remember)during that safety car period. Massa would be right to blame Piquet jr. if there were no mistakes on his side.

  27. Piquet has to be the dumbest guy ever, if he keeps quiet and of of the headlines, then maybe some people could think about forgiving him for his past at some point in the future. But just adding fuel to the fire and opening up wounds is going to do him no favours.

  28. I truely believe that any headlines involving his name isn´t worth 51 comments (err.. 52 comments).

  29. It was just one incident among many during that season. Wasn’t Massa awarded an extra Championship Point after Bourdais dared come out of the pits in front of him? That was the first time ever I can remember that anyone was awarded anything Extra for a Potential result If… Massa can’t blame it on anyone. So many things happened, the person/car/team most suited to the circumstances won. That’s how it goes.

    Having said that, who cares what Piquet Jr is saying? Move on, get a job in Hollywood.

  30. Massa has every reason to blame this attention-seeking cheater for losing the championship. He was set for an easy win until Piquet floored the throttle and smashed his car into the wall.

    Sure, Alonso won and I was happy at that, but Massa deserved the championship.

    1. Hmmmm…..I’m not so sure I agree with you there Daykind. Irrespective of the validity of what Piquet Jnr is saying but –

      Massa did drive some good races in 2008 but he also drove some bloody shockers. Similarly Hamilton also drove some great races but had a couple of shockers as well. Personally, I can’t say with any kind of conviction that either driver really deserved it any more than the other (based solely on that year).

      However, despite the odd flash of brilliance, I don’t think there’s much of an argument refuting the fact that Massa is a second rate driver (more second rate than some people think of Button) whereas Hamilton is a top notch/first rate driver, in my opinion second only to Alonso and that’s only by a small margin – and I don’t even like Hamilton! I think he’s a smug git

      The idea of 2008 World Champion Filipe Massa just doesn’t sound right (as some people say of Button, though I do think Button is a deserving champion). Whereas some of Hamilton’s talent is very worthy of being called World Champion.

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