Ferrari says no malicious intent in Smedley's radio message to Massa

The two drivers made contact at the Marina Bay race, and the controversy was fuelled further when the official highlights video posted on Formula 1's official website included Smedley's radio message to Massa.

"Hold Hamilton as much as we can. Destroy his race as much as we can. Come on, boy...," Smedley told Massa.

But Ferrari, speaking through its 'Horse Whisperer' column, said on Tuesday that Smedley's message had been simply blown out of proportion.

The Italian squad admitted the comments were not the "most politically correct", but insisted they had absolutely nothing to do with the collision that took place between the drivers moments later.

"Words, words, words...Reading some of the English daily papers, it seems the Horse Whisperer is not alone in having his thoughts turn to William Shakespeare when he stumbled across the polemical mountain made out of the molehill that was the phrase delivered by Rob Smedley during the Singapore Grand Prix," wrote the The Horse Whisperer on Ferrari's website.

"It's true that Felipe Massa's race engineer was caught up in the heat of the moment and chose to use the verb "destroy" at some point.

"It might not have been the most politically correct choice of word, but it definitely carried no malicious intent, especially when you take into account that Rob is a Middlesbrough lad, born and bred!

"It is also true that this exhortation to Felipe came at the exit to Turn 5 on lap 11 of the race, at the end of which both the Ferrari man and Hamilton were due to come in to the pits together. In other words, it had nothing to do with the collision between Felipe and Lewis that happened on the following lap.

"It would not have taken much to avoid this misunderstanding, but that's what happens in the frenetic world of Formula 1. When all is said done, as the Bard of Avon himself might have put it, it was all much ado about nothing."