Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton were involved in an intense battle for the Championship in 2008. Lewis Hamilton won that battle by just a single point. However, there was an incident during the Singapore Grand Prix that year that allowed Felipe Massa to file a lawsuit against Formula 1 and the FIA.
During the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, Felipe Massa was leading the race by a decent margin. However, a crash from Nelson Piquet Jr. gave his teammate, Fernando Alonso the advantage. trying to utilize the safety car, Felipe Massa came into the pits for refueling and fresh tires. As the team gave Massa the green light to continue, the fuel line was still connected to the car. This saw him fight back from the last position. All he could manage was a 13th-place finish.
On this day 14 years ago during the #SingaporeGP, Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately crashed his car at T17 to give a sporting advantage to his then teammate Fernando Alonso. Fernando ended up winning the race starting from P15. #F1 #CrashGate pic.twitter.com/DwtWAwo51Q
— Simon Dau (@there_is_no_if) September 28, 2022
The next year, Nelson Piquet Jr. who had crashed in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix said that the team had asked him to crash to allow his teammate, Fernando Alonso the opportunity to win the race. This was followed by an investigation by the FIA that led to the departure of Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds who were the Managing Director and Executive Director of Engineering respectively. This incident is commonly known as “Crashgate”
On March 2023, Bernie Ecclestone, who was the CEO of Formula 1 at the time of the incident, stated that Max Mosley and himself knew of Crashgate before Nelson Piquet’s statements and decided to take no action at the time. This caused Felipa Massa to take legal action as he believes that he would have won the 2008 Championship if not for Crashgate.
Felipe Massa vs. FIA & Formula 1
Massa is bent on getting his justice. On Thursday, Felipa Massa’s lawyers released the following statement:
“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.
“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 repetitional losses suffered by Mr. Massa.”
Judging from the above statement, it seems as though the lawyers are giving an indication that Massa is looking for compensation, and not the title itself. However, this contradicts the statement that Felipe Massa gave earlier in March.
🚨 | Felipe Massa’s team have started legal proceedings against FOM and the FIA over the 2008 title.
They are seeking compensation for damages, the Letter Before Claim reads as follows:
“Simply put, Mr Massa is the rightful 2008 Driver’s Champion, and F1 and the FIA… pic.twitter.com/a5sJU5tL14
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) August 17, 2023
“I’m not doing this for money. I’m not doing this for anything. Because it’s not what I am to, but I’m going this for the justice. Not only for me but for my friends, my country, my family, Ferrari and Ferrari fans.”
It seems as though the Brazilian has now changed his mind. He is apparently looking for “tens of millions of Euros”. This seems more likely than handing him the title which was given to Lewis Hamilton. Let’s not forget that Felipe Massa’s entire case is based on a statement made by a 92-year-old man.
Can Lewis Hamilton lose the 2008 Championship after 15 years?
After all this time, it is probably unlikely that Lewis Hamilton can lose the Championship. This is mainly because there is no way of confirming that Felipe Massa would have won the Championship if not for Crashgate.
Felipe Massa’s case is mainly dependent on the statement that Bernie Ecclestone gave. However, now Bernie claims that he does not remember anything he said during that particular interview.
⚠️ | Bernie Ecclestone says he does not remember saying that he knew in 2008 that Nelson Piquet’s crash in the Singapore GP was deliberate.
“I don’t remember any of this, to be honest. I don’t remember giving the interview, for sure,” Ecclestone said.#F1 pic.twitter.com/3jnk1IoseM
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) August 18, 2023
Bernie Ecclestone is currently 92 years old. So it is possible that he is forgetting things at the moment or incorrectly remembering things from his past. Either way, this could be a big issue for Massa’s case.
Even if Bernie can remember, there is absolutely no chance that Massa could take the 2008 title from Lewis Hamilton. Even if Massa had retained the lead in the Singapore Grand Prix in 2008, it cannot be determined that he would have gone on to win the race. Racing is often unpredictable. So it’s safe to say that Lewis Hamilton is the 2008 Champion and it’s going to stay that way.