From GMM
Felipe Massa has got his 2010 pairing at Ferrari with Fernando Alonso off to an awkward start, asserting that the Spaniard's controversial win in Singapore last year "robbed" him of the world championship.
The Brazilian, who is recuperating from serious head injuries and set to return as Alonso's teammate next season, suggested that the 28-year-old should have been disqualified as the winner of F1's first night race over the 'crash-gate' affair.
"All of what happened was robbery -- but regarding the race nothing has happened, the result remains the same. This is not right," Felipe Massa, who like Alonso is 28, told Brazilian Globo television. "The robbery changed the outcome of a championship and I lost (the title)," he added, referring to Ferrari's botched pitstop that was triggered by the safety car period to clear Nelson Piquet's deliberately crashed Renault.
Massa said he cannot understand why F1's results are set in stone just weeks after the end of each championship, even when serious race-fixing later comes to light.
"I have seen in football how a referee took money to throw a game and all the suspect results were annulled," he charged. "In Italy, Juventus were relegated. But here (in F1) they just sent Briatore home. I don't get it and I don't think it was right."
Lewis Hamilton on Friday said he was "a little surprised" that Felipe Massa is questioning the outcome of the 2008 world championship.
"It is my title and what people say doesn't bother me," McLaren driver Hamilton is quoted as saying from Suzuka by the German newspaper Bild. "I am a little surprised, because we had a very fair title fight over the course of the season," the Briton added.
Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali commented: "There is no authority that can annul a sporting result one year afterwards, so we have to live with it."
Massa, 28, also told Globo that it was "not so cool" that Nelson Piquet Jr only admitted to crashing deliberately after he was fired by Renault. On Thursday, the pair then shook hands at the Granja Viana kart track near Sao Paulo, where they are training for a forthcoming race.
However, Felipe Massa insists, he has 'no problems' with his 2010 teammate Fernando Alonso.
"He is a great driver," the Brazilian agrees, "but so were my two previous teammates, Kimi and Schumacher. I am calm. Today Ferrari is a team well able to work with two drivers.
"Raikkonen didn't talk much but we got on together well. He was a great teammate and I hope that Fernando is too.
"You know that in Ferrari you will always have a good driver next to you," said the 28-year-old.
The pair clashed infamously after the 2007 Nürburgring race, when following an on-track scrape they argued in the native tongue of Italy while waiting to go onto the podium.
"Shortly after that, we got over it together," Massa, who several times this week has tested karts in his native Sao Paulo, is quoted as saying by TV Globo. "It's in the past. There are no problems between us."
Felipe Massa has got his 2010 pairing at Ferrari with Fernando Alonso off to an awkward start, asserting that the Spaniard's controversial win in Singapore last year "robbed" him of the world championship.
The Brazilian, who is recuperating from serious head injuries and set to return as Alonso's teammate next season, suggested that the 28-year-old should have been disqualified as the winner of F1's first night race over the 'crash-gate' affair.
"All of what happened was robbery -- but regarding the race nothing has happened, the result remains the same. This is not right," Felipe Massa, who like Alonso is 28, told Brazilian Globo television. "The robbery changed the outcome of a championship and I lost (the title)," he added, referring to Ferrari's botched pitstop that was triggered by the safety car period to clear Nelson Piquet's deliberately crashed Renault.
Massa said he cannot understand why F1's results are set in stone just weeks after the end of each championship, even when serious race-fixing later comes to light.
"I have seen in football how a referee took money to throw a game and all the suspect results were annulled," he charged. "In Italy, Juventus were relegated. But here (in F1) they just sent Briatore home. I don't get it and I don't think it was right."
Lewis Hamilton on Friday said he was "a little surprised" that Felipe Massa is questioning the outcome of the 2008 world championship.
"It is my title and what people say doesn't bother me," McLaren driver Hamilton is quoted as saying from Suzuka by the German newspaper Bild. "I am a little surprised, because we had a very fair title fight over the course of the season," the Briton added.
Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali commented: "There is no authority that can annul a sporting result one year afterwards, so we have to live with it."
Massa, 28, also told Globo that it was "not so cool" that Nelson Piquet Jr only admitted to crashing deliberately after he was fired by Renault. On Thursday, the pair then shook hands at the Granja Viana kart track near Sao Paulo, where they are training for a forthcoming race.
However, Felipe Massa insists, he has 'no problems' with his 2010 teammate Fernando Alonso.
"He is a great driver," the Brazilian agrees, "but so were my two previous teammates, Kimi and Schumacher. I am calm. Today Ferrari is a team well able to work with two drivers.
"Raikkonen didn't talk much but we got on together well. He was a great teammate and I hope that Fernando is too.
"You know that in Ferrari you will always have a good driver next to you," said the 28-year-old.
The pair clashed infamously after the 2007 Nürburgring race, when following an on-track scrape they argued in the native tongue of Italy while waiting to go onto the podium.
"Shortly after that, we got over it together," Massa, who several times this week has tested karts in his native Sao Paulo, is quoted as saying by TV Globo. "It's in the past. There are no problems between us."