- Felipe Massa could have been Formula 1 champion in 2008, but errors prevented it from happening.
- At the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, Massa left his pit box with the fuel hose attached to his car, preventing him from winning the race.
- Brazil’s last F1 champion was the late Ayrton Senna.
Did you know that Brazilian Felipe Massa is known as 2008’s 30-second Formula 1 champion?
Massa crossed the finish line in first place at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix – the position he needed to secure that year’s championship. There was jubilation in the Ferrari garage, and the crowd went crazy upon realizing that Massa was the country’s first F1 champion since the late Ayrton Senna.
Sadly, title rival Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) managed to secure fifth place – the position he needed to become F1’s youngest champion at the time. It was a bitter pill for Massa and the thousands of fans who had dashed their hopes and dreams.
However, Massa’s 2008 championship challenge has been hanging on a knife’s edge the entire season, and he was on the back foot from the start. But it all went out the window at the 2008 Singapore GP…
Felipe Massa during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix
Massa, whoa!
Coming into the Singapore race, Massa trailed Hamilton by one point: 77 vs 78. Those years, F1 still used the old points system (10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1), rewarding only the top 8 finishers. The current system came into play in 2010.
After the season’s opening two races, Hamilton already amassed 14 points, while Massa came away with zero – be it through driver error or a technical gremlin.
Still, the Brazilian clawed his way up the championship order to come within striking distance of Hamilton. And Singapore, the fourth-last race of the year, should have been the GP where the pendulum finally swung in Massa’s favour.
Securing pole position, Massa started the race from the front and led it by a comfortable margin. Until Lap 12. The driver came into the Ferrari pits for fresh tires and to refuel, but a(nother) technical issue saw him relinquish the lead and finish the race in 13th place.
See, Ferrari had been experimenting with a lights system to let drivers know they can exit the pit box once a stop has been completed. The reason was to do away with the ‘lollipop’ man and eliminate human error. And on the night that it mattered, the new system failed.
With fresh tires fitted and the fuel pipe firmly attached to the car, the lights went green, and Massa went off.
Fuel spewed everywhere, a pit crew member got wiped off his feet, and Massa got the urgent call to stop at the end of the pitlane as the Ferrari crew rushed over to remove the fuel hose from his car. The car had been released from the jacks too early, triggering the sensors and giving Massa the all-clear.
In the end, Massa lost out on the 2008 championship by one point to Hamilton: 98 vs 97. And given that he outscored Hamilton in two of the remaining three races, the history books could have looked much different.
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