By one point, Lewis Hamilton won the 2008 Formula 1 World Championship over Felipe Massa.
In the world of Formula 1, drama never lacks, and recently, former racer Felipe Massa made the decision to grab attention by contesting the results of the 2008 World Championship.
See, Massa only edged Lewis Hamilton out for the title by one point, but Massa is prepared to show in court that he was wrongfully denied it. And why not just give this one to Massa as a little treat, given that Hamilton has so many other victories?
Let’s establish some background information.
In other words, according to Massa, he was “the victim of a conspiracy committed by individuals at the highest level of F1 together with the FIA and Formula One Management,” according to Reuters. Because of the Crashgate scandal.
Nelson Piquet Junior competed in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.
His teammate Fernando Alonso needed a competitive edge, so he purposefully crashed to give him one.
Even though it was suspicious at the time, it wasn’t until 2009 that widespread claims of a conspiracy and the Renault team’s championship-manipulating behavior emerged.
Awarded to Hamilton by then was the 2008 championship.
Now, the crux of Massa’s defense is his conviction that there is sufficient evidence to demonstrate that F1 was well aware that the Singapore Grand Prix crash was deliberate before the 2008 season was over.
That basically means that F1 decided to wait until it was too late to correct this wrong in order to affect the outcome of the 2008 title match.
It was a crucial contest, as Massa was edged out for the title by just one point.
He is now claiming that if F1 had addressed Crashgate right away, he would have easily won with the points he had accrued.
After all, Massa had the lead when Piquet Jr. crashed.
Massa’s post-crash stop caused him to lose several positions because at the time, the rules forbade pit stops until all the cars in the race had gathered behind the safety car.
He ultimately finished the race in 13th place, which was well outside of a points-paying finish.
Midway through August, Massa and his attorneys formally notified F1 and the FIA that legal action had been initiated.
The loss of the championship, according to Massa, cost him millions of dollars in earnings and probably affected his career as a whole negatively.
Simply put, according to the letter, “Mr.dot Massa is the rightful 2008 Driver’s Champion, and F1 and FIA deliberately ignored the misconduct that cheated him out of that title.”.
“Mr. Although Massa is currently unable to fully estimate his losses, he believes that they will likely exceed tens of millions of Euros.
The severe moral and reputational losses Mr.dot Massa has endured are not covered by this sum.
“.
The fact that Bernie Ecclestone, a former F1 executive, claimed in a March interview that he knew Nelson Piquet Jr., may not come as a surprise to those familiar with Massa’s legal contention.
‘s accident was intentional when it occurred, but he and FIA chief Max Mosley chose to wait to take action until they were compelled to do so in 2009.
(For his part, Ecclestone told Reuters that he doesn’t even recall making those comments to the media and that Massa or his legal team hadn’t even contacted Ecclestone.
).
Massa’s letter requested a response by September 8 from F1 and the FIA.
According to Autosport, the new deadline is in the middle of October.
Ferrari, the team that Massa competed for in 2008, has declined to take part in the legal action.
Lewis Hamilton is an important ambassador for sport and has consistently supported sporting integrity, so Massa’s attorneys are now hoping that Hamilton will support Massa personally. He is a beloved honorary citizen of Brazil, so I’m hoping he’ll be on our side. We have nothing at all against Hamilton.
“.
The outcome of this legal dispute will be interesting to watch. It might be simple for F1 to claim that racing is a fickle mistress and that even if Massa had won the 2008 Singapore GP, there was no guarantee that the rest of his season would have transpired exactly as it had; he very well may not have come close to winning the Championship.
Massa might counter that he would have had more momentum for the remainder of the season if he had won the race. The outcome is probably going to have a big impact on future highly contentious F1 seasons.