Felipe Massa upset with Daniel Ricciardo after he made Crashgate joke that wasn’t ‘right’

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Felipe Massa has responded to a joke made by Daniel Ricciardo during the Singapore Grand Prix that was in reference to the 2008 Crashgate scandal.

The incident was one of the worst cases of cheating in sporting history when Renault driver Nelson Piquet Jr was told to deliberately crash his car to bring out a Safety Car and benefit teammate Fernando Alonso.

The incident effectively ruined Felipe Massa’s race while he was leading, costing him vital points in the championship battle with Lewis Hamilton.

In the aftermath, Renault was handed a suspended disqualification from F1 pending any further rule infringements and both managing director, Flavio Briatore, and engineer Pat Symonds were handed bans which the French courts subsequently overturned.

During the recent Singapore Grand Prix, after qualifying at the back of the grid Daniel Ricciardo joked that he would need a cheap Safety Car to get back to the front and score points before quipping: “Bring Piquet back, and let’s make it happen.”

When speaking to the media after the Singapore GP about the comments, Massa did not take the joke well according to Motorsport-Total.

Felipe Massa brands Daniel Ricciardo Crashgate joke ‘not so nice’

Massa is currently going through legal action regarding Crashgate after comments made by Bernie Ecclestone reignited the controversy.

The Brazilian is seeking to have the result of the 2008 World Championship overturned by having the race in Singapore disqualified from the season after Ecclestone claimed it was possible under the rules.

Responding to Ricciardo’s comments, Massa was not overly pleased with the joke he made to media following qualifying.

“I think jokes are jokes. But that might not be a particularly nice joke. Making jokes about something that wasn’t right for the sport is not so nice,” said Massa.

“But I wasn’t there, I didn’t hear the exact wording, and I understand that jokes are jokes. But it’s definitely not a nice joke, and of course it’s not a nice thing that this happened to me.”

Rob Smedley shares how F1 paddock reacted to Crashgate

Massa’s engineer at the time at Ferrari, Rob Smedley revealed how the F1 paddock reacted to the whole scenario after the race.

Him and many others suspected that something was amiss in the aftermath of the race, after Massa’s strategy was effectively ruined by the accident.

According to journalist Mark Hughes, as the race directly benefitted Alonso “nobody believed it [the win] was genuine” at the time.

It took nearly a year before Piquet Jr went to the FIA over the matter and it was investigated, with Renault also losing major title sponsor Dutch bank ING in the aftermath of the investigation.