Filipe Massa has escalated his legal challenge over the 2008 World Drivers Championship, that saw the Brazilian lose the title to Lewis Hamilton by one point a the final race in Brazil.

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Conspiracy Theory

The main part of the legal action, launched by Massa and his legal team, centre on the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, where Nelson Piquet Jr crashed, allowing his then teammate, Alonso to win the race. It was later found to have been a elaborate plan by the Renault team to manipulate the result of the Grand Prix in their favour.

The fallout from the incident saw the French team handed a disqualification from F1, suspended for two years.

Managing Director, Flavio Briatore was banned from F1 indefinitely, with Director of Engineering, Pat Simmonds banned for 5 years. Although both bans were overturned by a French court, they agreed with F1 and the FIA not to work in any F1 or FIA related events for a period of time.

At the time of the incident Massa led calls for the Singapore GP results to be cancelled, which would have crowned him the 2008 World Drivers Champion.

Bernie’s Admission

The escalation of Felipe Massa’s legal challenge centres around comments made by Bernie Ecclestone, who was the head of Formula 1 at the time of Crashgate.

In an interview given to F1-Insider earlier this year, he was quoted as saying:

We wanted to protect the sport and save it from a huge scandal. That’s why I used angelic tounges to persuade my former driver Nelson Piquet to keep calm for the time being. Back then, there was a rule that a world championship classification after the FIA ​​awards ceremony at the end of the year was untouchable. So Hamilton was presented with the trophy and everything was fine. We had enough information in time to investigate the matter. According to the statutes, we should have cancelled the race in Singapore under these conditions. That means it would never have happened for the championship standings. And then Felipe Massa would have become world champion and not Lewis Hamilton.

With Bernie Ecclestone, seemingly admitting to the fact that they (F1/FIA) should have cancelled the Singapore GP and took steps to avoid this course of action, it would on the face of it look as though Massa does hav\e some weight behind the legal challenge, however Bernie Ecclestone has since distanced himself from the interview stating (to Reuters) that he “does not remember interview”

What are the Lawyers saying?

Enyo Law, the London based firm representing Felipe Massa has commented on the case stating: {Massa} “the victim of a conspiracy committed by individuals at the highest level of F1 together with the FIA and Formula 1 Management“

They go on to say that Massa lost out on tens of millions of Euros as a result of the Singapore GP and that “Mr Massa is the rightful 2008 Driver’s Champion and F1 and FIA deliberately ignored the misconduct that cheated him out of the title”

The FIA has confirmed that they are in receipt of correspondence from Filipe Massa and that the matter is “under review” and will not be providing comment at this stage.

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