Crashgate allegations continue to pursue Alonso

Friday 16th October 2009

Fernando Alonso just cannot shake off the allegation that he knew of the Renault conspiracy to fix last year's Singapore GP.

Any hope that the FIA World Council's verdict that Alonso was not privy to the plan would have put an end to the matter has proved forlorn. Not only has Felipe Massa, Alonso's team-mate at Ferrari next season, declared that "of course he knew" and refused to categorically withdraw the accusation despite Ferrari seeking to play down the inevitable furore but Nelson Piquet Sr has once again repeated his suspicions against the Spaniard.

"They all knew about it," Piquet told Gazzetta dello Sport this week. "Do you think Alonso would conceive a race where he starts 15th and makes a pit stop almost straight away? It was a perfect plan."

Of perhaps more concern to the Alonso camp will be the claim of James Allen, made in his personal blog, that 'Many of the drivers say the same thing privately, but have not wanted to say it publicly.'

In an interesting aside, Allen suggests that Massa's incendiary remarks have been motivated by a refusal to be cowed by the imminent arrival of the two-times World Champion.

'What's intriguing about Massa's comments here is that he wants to show Alonso from the outset that he is no pushover and he has no qualms about probing Alonso's weak points, such as the doubt over his involvement in the crash scandal and thus, by extension, his reputation,' says Allen.

The impression that Massa is seeking to unsettle Alonso has been endorsed by the Brazilian also warning his future team-mate that he will have to adapt to Ferrari rather than vice versa.

"It will have to be Fernando who adapts himself to the Ferrari style and not the other way around," said Massa. "I know how Ferrari works, he has to learn. If I was going to Renault it would be up to me to adapt to them."

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