Felipe Massa is going to court in his fight for the 2008 Formula 1 World Championship victory. Almost 16 years after the “Crashgate” in Singapore, the Brazilian has filed a lawsuit in London against the world automobile association Fia, the current World Cup rights holder FOM and the former owner Bernie Ecclestone.
This was announced by the Brazilian law firm Vieira Rezende Advogados, which claims to represent Massa. Accordingly, the 42-year-old Brazilian is also suing for damages in an as yet unknown amount.
Massa is of the opinion that he is the rightful world champion of 2008 because of the incident known as “Crashgate”. At the time, he had finished second in the overall World Cup standings, just behind Briton Lewis Hamilton. “Massa wants to establish that the FIA broke its own rules by failing to immediately investigate Nelson Piquet Jr.’s collision at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. He believes he would have won the drivers’ championship that year “If the FIA had acted properly”said a statement from the lawyers. The FIA did not comment on the lawsuit when asked by the AP news agency; a reaction from FOM and Ecclestone was initially pending.
Ordered crash
He now wants to be retrospectively recognized as world champion in court. Massa is concerned with the events surrounding the 2008 Singapore race. On the narrow street circuit, the Brazilian Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately crashed his Renault into the guardrails. The accident and the subsequent safety car phase enabled his then teammate Fernando Alonso to win.
As it later emerged, Flavio Briatore, then Renault team boss, and Pat Symonds, then technical director, had ordered the crash in the fourth-to-last race of the season. Both were banned – and later pardoned again. Massa led the night race for a long time.
Massa is only missing one point
After the Piquet crash, Ferrari made a botched pit stop and tore off the fuel tank nozzle, which meant that Massa ultimately only crossed the finish line in 13th place with no points. In the final in Brazil he was only one point short of world champion Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren.
The trigger for Massa’s actions was, in particular, an interview by former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, according to which the controversial incident involving Piquet junior was allegedly known in Formula 1 and FIA circles before the end of the 2008 season. However, they decided against taking any steps.