The Formulation 1 world is about to revisit one in every of its most controversial moments this week as Felipe Massa’s long-running authorized battle heads to a London courtroom.
The Brazilian former F1 driver is pushing ahead together with his case in opposition to the FIA and former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, claiming that the game didn’t act appropriately throughout the 2008 ‘Crashgate’ scandal that value him the world championship.
What Occurred to Felipe Massa in 2008?
Massa was one in every of Formulation 1’s brightest stars throughout the late 2000s and got here inside one level of profitable the 2008 world championship. Nevertheless, the heartbreak was made worse by the revelation of a ‘Crashgate‘ scandal which unfolded throughout that yr’s Singapore Grand Prix.
Throughout that race, Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately crashed his Renault at Flip 17 beneath workforce orders to set off a security automotive that handed the race win to his teammate Fernando Alonso. Till that time, Massa had been main comfortably. Nevertheless, after a disastrous pit cease beneath the security automotive interval, he fell out of rivalry and completed outdoors the factors.
Months later, the game discovered that Piquet’s crash wasn’t an accident in any respect and the Renault workforce had, actually, allegedly instructed him to crash intentionally to assist his teammate Alonso win the race, which the FIA later confirmed in 2009 by punishing Renault’s management. Nonetheless, the championship outcomes had been left untouched, and a French courtroom later overturned the punishments too.
Massa had accepted the end result and moved on, however new feedback from former F1 boss Ecclestone years later reopened previous wounds. In a 2023 interview, Ecclestone appeared to confess that he and then-FIA president Max Mosley knew concerning the deliberate crash quickly sufficient to analyze it earlier than the top of the 2008 season, which might have modified all the things for Massa.
Nevertheless, Ecclestone later admitted that his feedback had been taken out of context and had been misplaced in translation, however the injury had been achieved by then.
Massa Takes F1 Struggle to Court docket
Feeling that the game had failed him, Massa determined to take authorized motion, and his workforce filed a lawsuit in 2024, arguing that the FIA and FOM breached their very own guidelines by failing to analyze the Singapore race after they had the prospect.
He isn’t asking for the championship to be rewritten, however is in search of greater than $80 million in damages for what he stated was a career-altering injustice.
The listening to will happen on the Royal Courts of Justice in London and can determine if the case strikes ahead or will get dismissed solely. The defending events have fully denied any wrongdoing and are in search of to have the declare struck out earlier than it reaches a full trial.
Massa’s lawyer, Bernardo Viana, stated that this case is about extra than simply heartbreak and believes that it’s concerning the sport’s accountability and the way F1 handles controversies that impression its integrity.
If the decide permits the case to maneuver ahead, it might open the door to one of the crucial uncommon trials in F1’s historical past, the place a driver has tried to legally problem the end result of a world championship so a few years later.
Because the listening to unfolds this week, Choose Sir Robert Jay will overview the proof and arguments earlier than deciding if the case strikes ahead, and a ruling might arrive as early as Friday. It’ll probably form how Formulation 1 handles its most delicate controversies within the years to come back.
