In a witness statement revealed this week, Massa said Ferrari reprimanded him in 2009 after he suggested Alonso knew about teammate Nelson Piquet Jr’s deliberate crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.
The incident helped Alonso win the race, while Massa’s title hopes were ruined after a pit stop error left him finishing 13th.
“In October 2009 I also told journalists that I believed Fernando Alonso (the other Renault driver who won because of Nelson’s crash) knew it was on purpose,” Massa said in his statement.
“When Ferrari found out, GSA (the firm who handled the team’s contracts) wrote me a letter on 16 October 2009 reprimanding me about making public comments about Fernando Alonso.”
Massa said the letter, signed by Ferrari lawyer Henry Peter, was sent shortly before Alonso joined the team for the 2010 season.
Ferrari had also prepared a statement for Massa to issue, which he refused to sign.
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“Ferrari then drafted a statement for me to issue but I refused to make that statement. Instead, I just said that it was time to look to the future,” he said.
The revelation adds a new layer to Massa’s £64 million ($128 million AUD) lawsuit against the FIA, Formula One Management (FOM), and Bernie Ecclestone, in which he alleges the governing bodies failed to act on evidence of race-fixing that could have changed the outcome of the 2008 championship.
Massa’s legal team, led by Nick De Marco KC, accused F1’s leadership at the time — including Ecclestone and former FIA president Max Mosley — of “deliberate concealment” of the Singapore crash to protect the sport’s image.
“The deliberate crash was one of the most serious incidents of sport manipulation in world sport,” De Marco told the Royal Courts of Justice.
“The deliberate concealment by those with responsibility for protecting the integrity of the sport [was] a cover-up of one of the most serious scandals in the history of sport.”
Lawyers for the FIA and FOM have argued Massa’s claim is without merit.
The FIA described the case as “torturous” and “overly ambitious,” saying the 2008 title outcome was determined by Massa’s own and Ferrari’s errors, while FOM’s counsel said Lewis Hamilton “outperformed” Massa across the season.
Ecclestone’s lawyer, David Quest KC, also insisted the crash had no bearing on the final result, arguing Massa’s poor performance in Singapore was “not related to the crash.”
The pre-trial stage of the case concludes this week, when a judge will decide whether Massa’s lawsuit will proceed to a full trial or be dismissed.
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