Felipe Massa has a new job. He will take control of the safety car from VC Singapore – F1sport.cz

Felipe Massa’s legal team recently announced that they have filed a lawsuit against the FIA, F1 and Bernie Eccleston over the parties’ failure to open a timely investigation into the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, which was affected by Nelson Piquet Jr’s accident.

Let us remind you that the Brazilian, working for Renault, deliberately crashed on the team’s instructions, in order to arrange for the safety car to go out at a time when it was most convenient for his teammate Fernando Alonso. Renault’s plan worked, as the Spaniard took the lead and subsequently maintained it until the finish line.

On the other hand, Massa paid for the exit of the retarder car, whose mechanics could not handle the unplanned pit stop, when they let him drive off with a fuel hose in the chaos. In the end, the Ferrari pilot did not score points, and because of this, he lost to Lewis Hamilton in the fight for the title at the end of the season.

The public did not find out about Renault’s fraud until 12 months later, when it was no longer possible to change the results of the championship. However, Massa now claims that the representatives of the FIA ​​and F1 knew about the case in time and that they just wanted to sweep everything under the so-called carpet. The Brazilian therefore filed a lawsuit with the aim of obtaining high compensation.

However, the FIA ​​and F1 did not want to pay Massa tens of millions of dollars, so both organizations came up with a compromise proposal, which the Brazilian agreed to.

Massa will symbolically take over the role of safety car driver from Bernd Mayländer from this year’s Singapore Grand Prix and will remain in this position until the end of this season. In 2025, it will then alternate with Mayländer.

“I would like to thank Felipe Massa for agreeing to our compromise solution. As you know, since I took office, the FIA ​​has not been doing very well financially, so it is not in the power of the federation to pay Felipe a large compensation for the events of 2008,” said FIA President Muhammad bin Sulayim.

“By having Felipe take on the task of driving a speed bump, we’ll kill a few birds with one stone. Felipe will earn more, while it will not cost our federation any extra expenses, given that we will save on Bernd’s salary, who will, on the contrary, be very happy to rest,” bin Sulayem added.

The F1 series, which also faced a lawsuit from Massa, is also happy about the agreement.

“On behalf of FOM (Formula One Management), I would like to express my pleasure that we have reached this agreement. We will participate in the whole event by appointing Felipe as the sustainable fuel ambassador that the safety car will run on from this year’s Singapore Grand Prix,” said F1 boss Stefano Domenicali, who happened to be Massa’s boss at Ferrari in 2008.

“I would also like to take this opportunity to apologize to Felipe for pushing so hard at Ferrari at the time to use the traffic lights to leave the pit stop. Today I know that it wasn’t the best idea,” added the Italian.

“I am very happy to return to the F1 carousel again. It won’t give me back my 2008 title, but it’s better than a wire in my eye,” Massa commented on the out-of-court settlement, which was announced today, April 1.