Former racer Felipe Massa has filed a lawsuit against Formula 1, the FIA, and Bernie Ecclestone. The initial hearings began this week in London. Massa claims that the handling of the infamous 2008 crashgate scandal cost him the championship title. He is demanding recognition as world champion and damages of over 80 million dollars. The defendants have strongly criticized Massa, arguing that the Brazilian is overlooking his own mistakes.
The FIA had previously criticized Massa harshly for this ‘tormenting’ claim for damages. The organization argued that he does not mention his own missteps during the 2008 season. David Quest, Bernie Ecclestone’s lawyer, added fuel to the fire. On the opening day of the three-day hearing, he stated that Massa had ‘performed very poorly’ during the infamous 2008 Singapore GP.
In fact, Massa started from pole position and seemed on his way to a comfortable victory. But after Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately crashed his Renault into the wall, things went wrong for the Brazilian. A failed pit stop – where the fuel hose was still attached when he drove off – cost him valuable time and points. The fact that Piquet Jr. had deliberately caused a safety car forms the basis of Massa’s claim for damages. According to him, he would have become world champion instead of Lewis Hamilton, had crashgate been handled correctly at the time.
‘The Court is Not a Debate Club’
According to David Quest, Massa’s lawsuit is ‘a misplaced attempt to reopen the results of the 2008 Formula 1 season.’ Quest states, “Mr. Massa claims that if the FIA had handled the crash better, he would have won the drivers’ championship. These arguments treat the court as a sports debate club and ask it to engage in counterfactual reasoning about the arbitration of a sports event that took place nearly seventeen years ago.” Ecclestone’s lawyer also argued that the eventual world champion, Lewis Hamilton, was equally affected by the crash.
Anneliese Day KC, the representative of FOM, stated in writing that the claim ‘will be dismissed’, partly due to Massa’s own actions in the remaining rounds of the Singapore GP. “In reality, it was not the safety car that changed history for Mr. Massa, but a series of subsequent errors by him and his team,” the statement reads. “The simple fact is that Mr. Hamilton, both during the Singapore GP and throughout the 2008 season, performed better than Mr. Massa – and anyone else.”
