A few months ago, it was leaked that former Formula 1 driver Felipe Massa wanted to have the legal options to challenge the outcome of the 2008 Formula 1 World Championship, which he awarded Lewis Hamilton with a point in the championship, wanted to be examined penultimate corner of the last race of the season. Now the Brazilian is serious.
Review: The fourth to last race of the 2008 season in Singapore is coming up. Felipe Massa is one point behind leader Lewis Hamilton (then McLaren) in the Formula 1 drivers’ standings. At the Marina Bay Street Circuit, Massa starts from pole position and leads the race in his Ferrari until it comes to the “Crashgate”, where Nelson Piquet jr. (as has now become known) intentionally causes an accident and thus deliberately triggers a safety car phase, which is intended to put his Renault teammate Fernando Alonso in first place and does so.
Massa, on the other hand, completely missed out on the points due to a botched pit stop during the aforementioned safety car phase and ultimately lost the world championship by exactly one point three races later in Brazil.
While the result was long considered set in stone, recent statements by former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone caused a stir and probably also prompted Massa’s decision to reject the result of the 2008 season (and thus Lewis’ first world title). Hamilton) to proceed. Ecclestone had admitted to the “F1-Insider” portal that he and the then FIA President Max Mosley already knew about the situation “during the 2008 season” (about the intentional crash Piquets/ed.Red.) and should therefore intervene must. “We have decided not to do anything for the time being,” said Ecclestone, explaining: “We wanted to protect the sport and save it from a big scandal.”
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But exactly this scandal could happen now. Because Massa has turned on London lawyers who will now take legal action against both the FIA responsible and the Formula 1 bosses.
In a so-called ‘Letter Before Claim’, a kind of last warning letter before it goes to court, which is available to the international news agency “Reuters”, the legal representatives have stated on a total of eight pages that Massa “is the victim of a conspiracy that was created by people committed at the highest level of Formula 1 together with the FIA and Formula 1 management”. London lawyer Enyo Law told the news agency.
And further: “Put simply, Mr. Massa is the rightful World Drivers’ Champion in 2008 and Formula 1 and the FIA have deliberately ignored the misconduct by which he was cheated of the title.”
If the lawsuit goes through, immense claims for damages could come to F1. “Mr. Massa is unable to fully quantify his losses at this time but estimates they are likely to be in the tens of millions,” it said. “This amount does not cover the serious moral and reputational damages suffered by Mr. Massa,” continued the Letter Before Claim, which is said to have gone to current F1 boss Stefano Domenicali and FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
They should now have 14 days to give a substantial answer, otherwise Massa’s legal representatives would “initiate legal proceedings before the English courts without further notice,” according to “Reuters”.
The outcome of the possible legal dispute is completely open. As things stand, however, it is difficult to imagine that Hamilton will lose his first of seven world titles.