Felipe Massa’s legal action against F1 bosses and the FIA appears to have hit its first hurdle with Bernie Ecclestone backtracking on quotes he made earlier this year about the controversy surrounding the 2008 World Championship. Massa has long felt aggrieved at losing the title to Lewis Hamilton 15 years ago with the focus centred around the Singapore Grand Prix when Nelson Piquet Jr purposefully crashed out of the race.
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The crash ended up costing Massa, who was leading the race at the time, as Ferrari botched their ensuing pit-stop with the Brazilian failing to score any points. Hamilton ended up finishing third, giving him six crucial Championship points to move him seven clear of Massa at the top of the standings.
The following year was when news broke about Piquet Jr and Renault’s scheme at the Singapore race with ‘crashgate’ becoming one of the biggest scandals in the sport’s history. The topic reignited earlier this year when Ecclestone gave an interview to F1 Insider, where he was quoted saying that he and Max Mosley knew about Piquet Jr’s purposeful crash before it was made public knowledge and they failed to act on it.
The former F1 supremo alleged that they had ‘enough information’ to cancel the result of the Singapore Grand Prix and that Massa was ‘cheated of the title he deserved’. He also admitted that he would ‘do things differently’ today, sparking Massa’s search for legal advice.
Felipe Massa has filed legal action against F1 and the FIA (Image: Getty)
The Brazilian’s lawyers have now started legal action against F1 and the FIA to seek millions in compensation. However, Ecclestone has told Reuters that he doesn’t recall ever saying the quotes attributed to him from earlier this year.
“I don’t remember any of this, to be honest,” he said. “I don’t remember giving the interview for sure.”
Ecclestone also added that neither Massa nor the Brazilian’s lawyers approached him regarding his interview back in March. Massa’s lawyers sent their eight-page Letter Before Claim to both Stefano Domenicali and Mohammed Ben Sulayem on August 15.
And the document details how they believe Massa lost out on millions by not winning the 2008 World Championship. “Simply put, Mr Massa is the rightful 2008 Driver’s Champion, and F1 and FIA deliberately ignored the misconduct that cheated him out of that title,” said the letter.
“Mr Massa is unable to fully quantify his losses at this stage but estimates that they are likely to exceed tens of millions of Euros. This amount does not cover the serious moral and reputational losses suffered by Mr Massa.”
