Although Flavio Briatore is no longer his manager, Fernando Alonso says the Italian played a role in his decision to move to Ferrari.
Following the confirmation of his Ferrari deal on Wednesday, Alonso hinted that Briatore's departure from Renault was behind his premature move to the Italian marque.
Meanwhile, Felipe Massa has hit out at Nelson Piquet Jr, saying his fellow countryman's antics in Singapore cost him the 2008 Drivers' Championship title.
Massa had been leading last year's Singapore GP before Piquet's deliberate crash brought out the Safety Car. The ensuing pressure heaped on Massa's shoulders resulted in a botched pit stop and a P13 finish for the Ferrari driver.
He went on to lose the World title to Lewis Hamilton by one point.
"All of what happened was robbery - but regarding the race nothing has happened, the result remains the same," Massa told Globo television in Brazil.
"This is not right. The robbery changed the outcome of a Championship and I lost (the title).
"I have seen in football how a referee took money to throw a game and all the suspect results were annulled.
In Italy, Juventus were relegated. But here they just sent (Flavio) Briatore home. I don't get it and I don't think it was right."
As for Piquet's future in Formula One, Massa reckons he does not have one and nor should he have waited until after he was dropped by Renault before telling the truth.
"In general it was a very ugly attitude for a team to come up to you and say that you have to crash in order to renew your contract," he said. "A driver who knew he was going to be fired.
"Nelsinho knew he was going to be fired. I believe that admitting a mistake is a good thing, because the guy told the truth. He shouldn't have waited so long to tell the truth. He told [the truth] because he was fired, this is not cool.
"He is in a very difficult position in Formula 1. You can be certain that if someone from a team says, 'Let's hire Nelsinho', it won't go down well. I don't think I would do this. I think that I would have to think very hard about it [and] I think that I wouldn't be able to do it."
After all the saga, Toyota have revealed that they are still intent on signing Robert Kubica for next season.
The Toyota garage has already been a hotbed of news this weekend in Japan with boss John Howett insisting that the team is committed to remaining in the sport, revealing that Williams have officially requested to be released from their engine deal for next season, and confirming that both of their current drivers, Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock, will be dropped at the end of the current campaign.
While Kubica has been widely tipped to join Renault, Howett still believes that the team can sign the Pole to fill one half of the line-up for 2010.
"I think there are going to be some surprises [in the driver market]," he predicted. "We think we are still in the race for Robert along with Renault and Sauber."
On Thursday, Kubica said that his future was "95% decided" but declined to give any further indication as to his plans.
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