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The 2008 F1 championship battle between Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton has been in the news lately. The Brazilian has expressed an interest in taking legal action as fresh comments from Bernie Ecclestone have opened a can of worms.
However, what has been interesting is the stand taken across the board while discussing the 2008 F1 championship. Looking at both the championships in isolation, is it far-fetched to say that both were arguably robberies?
The 2021 F1 championship finale has been discussed at length and Michael Masi's decision to restart was controversial at the very least. In the same breath, however, the 2008 F1 championship being decided by a fixed race has to be considered a robbery as well.
While we continue to see F1 pundits outraged and discussing the events of the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP with such regularity, why does the 2008 F1 championship not evoke this reaction?
Masi was the target of regular jibes by Ted Kravitz throughout the 2023 Australian GP, with David Croft having to rein in his fellow commentator with the "He's a human being" plea on-air.
Why do we not see the same pointed attack when the perpetrators of Crashgate walk freely in the paddock? Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds were held guilty for the incident. Briatore walks freely in the paddock whenever he wishes and Symonds is the man responsible for F1's new technical regulations.
Why such disparity? Why do the last two "title robberies" in F1 evoke such different responses? Why is one of them still a source of outrage almost 18 months after it happened and the other is met with muted if any acknowledgment?
In this feature, let's try to answer why we have such a disparity of outrage between the last two title robberies in F1.
The time since the incident happened
Maybe it should not be a criteria, but it is arguably fair to say that the fact that the Lewis Hamilton-Felipe Massa title battle happened 15 years ago plays a role. Either a lot of Ferrari/Massa fans have made peace with what happened in 2008 or many F1 fans right now are not even aware of the incident and how it aided Hamilton's title challenge.
To add to this, even when everyone joined the dots on how Crashgate led to Hamilton's title win in 2008, social media was not as prominent as it is now. For the 2021 F1 Abu Dhabi GP, the emotion-filled title battle had everyone's attention on social media and the disastrous ending put everything into overdrive.
But then, recognition of how Crashgate pretty much decided the 2008 F1 championship has not been there since day one from either the fans or the media, which has been a bit surprising.
The nakedness of one robbery as compared to the other
In the case of Abu Dhabi 2021, the title robbery (if we can call it that) was right in front of everyone. Michael Masi's decision to bring the safety car in on the last lap was the decision that decided the championship. There was a direct correlation between action and consequence and it played out in front of the fans that could decipher the blatant nature of the robbery.
Compare this to the nuanced nature of the robbery in 2008 and you could argue that many fans could not decipher how Crashgate and effectively a fixed race decided the championship. Even now, poor Felipe Massa has to spell it out and explain why he is considering legal action.
In fairness, even though the robbery in 2008 was as egregious if not more than 2021(a fixed race deciding the title vs a referee messing up), it's not as clean-cut a case. Hence, neither fans nor the media have given it the time or attention that it probably deserved.
The role of the media?
There's one thing that continues to get pointed out in the last couple of years by certain drivers and now team principals as well. The British media's presence in the F1 paddock and its dominant ability to carve a narrative is now well-known. English is the primary source of content consumption in F1 and most of the prominent outlets are British.
This was pointed out by Sergio Perez last season when he mentioned how he was constantly targeted by the media. It was pointed out by Fernando Alonso after his radio outburst following a crash with Lewis Hamilton. The Spaniard clearly stated that the British media had a habit of blowing things out of proportion.
Even Christian Horner said that Red Bull wouldn't attract this much hate if it had a British driver on the team.
In this instance, we've seen Jean Alesi, a former Ferrari driver, and Emerson Fittipaldi, a former world champion, come out in support of Felipa Massa. Unfortunately for the Brazilian, none of these voices were amplified or were slapped on the front page news.
Almost 18 months since it happened, Abu Dhabi 2021 still gets mentioned by David Croft, Ted Kravitz, Johnny Herbert, and a bunch of other F1 pundits. Even Peter Windsor recently drew parallels between what happened at the 2021 F1 Abu Dhabi GP and the 2023 F1 Australian GP.
Not many of them have come forward with strong opinions on the 2008 F1 championship where, ironically, Lewis Hamilton was the benefactor. When it comes to giving air to a particular story, the media plays a key role, and the divergence with which the two 'robberies' are covered is interesting, to say the least.
Lewis Hamilton 'the brand' vs Felipe Massa
Even if we leave everything aside, be it the time span, the egregious nature, or even the role of the media, one thing that is undeniable is the army of support Lewis Hamilton garners. There's no driver on the current grid, or since Michael Schumacher retired, that has garnered this kind of support or fame.
Would we be looking at this kind of outrage or being reminded of it this much if a Nyck de Vries (let's assume) had been the victim of Abu Dhabi 2021? The answer is no. Hamilton getting robbed at the 2021 F1 Abu Dhabi GP is looked at so egregiously and is still something that elicits a level of disgust because the man is a transcendental figure.
Compare that to Felipe Massa and there's just nothing comparable. While Hamilton boasts around 40 million followers across Twitter and Instagram, Massa has a meager following of 2.5 million.
It was these 40 million followers whose outraged voices turned Michael Masi into a villain in the F1 paddock. Comparing that to Massa, the Brazilian does not come close in any which way in terms of the fanbase. He had a loyal following but was not a transcendental figure like the Briton.
It is arguably Hamilton's popularity that keeps the memories of the 2021 F1 Abu Dhabi GP fresh in everyone's minds. And it will be this fanbase's outrage that will ensure that Michael Masi never gets a role in the F1 paddock again.
On the other hand, we have Pat Symonds and Flavio Briatore roaming around the F1 paddock with impunity.
At the end of the day, both Hamilton and Massa have been victims of robbery in title fights. In a sport where fairness is a word thrown around often, let's either 'outrage' or 'move on' equally in both cases and not practice selective outrage based on our allegiance.
