Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton at the 2008 Belgian Grand Prix — Photo: © LAT Images

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Massa lawyer makes HUGE claim in bid to overturn Hamilton's 2008 title

Massa lost out to Hamilton by one point in the 2008 season

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Friday 8 September 2023 21:57

Felipe Massa's lawyer looking into whether the FIA covered up the 'crashgate' incident in order to avoid a scandal in the sport has said that there is more information out there that is yet to come to light.

'Crashgate' is one of most controversial issues in the sport's history, when Nelson Piquet Jr was ordered by his Renault team to purposely crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix in order to help team-mate Fernando Alonso win the race.

The events only came to light almost a year later, when Piquet was dropped from the Renault team after the 2009 Hungarian GP, and decided to come forward about what his team had asked him to do.

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An investigation found Renault guilty, and led to disqualifications and fines for a lot of key personnel. The drama didn't stop there, however.

Massa started legal proceedings against the FIA and FOM, after former Formula 1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone said earlier this year that he and then FIA president Max Mosley had known about Piquet and Renault's wrongdoing long before the matter came to light, but decided to do nothing in order to protect the sport from a scandal.

Had an investigation been started right away after the events of that Sunday afternoon, the result of the race may well have been nullified, meaning Lewis Hamilton's third position and Massa's 12th position after pit-stop trouble during the safety car that was caused by Piquet's crash, wouldn't have counted.

As it was, Hamilton went on to win the 2008 world championship by a single point ahead of Massa. Now, Massa and his legal team want the result overturned.

"The objective is to bring the trophy home, it's not financial," Bernardo Viana, from the Sao Paulo Vieira Rezende Advogados law firm that represents Massa told Motorsport.com

"To get there, several measures will be taken with different aims, some to obtain information and others to obtain statements. We want everything that happened in 2008/2009 to come to light."

While legal processes are in motion, the FIA and FOM have so far declined to comment on the Massa case.

Massa's lawyers 'quite confident'

Lewis Hamilton went on to win the 2008 title, the first of his seven world championships

Of course, the implications of overturning a world championship result from 15 years ago would be huge, not least because Hamilton would be sat on six world championships, rather than the record-equalling seven.

Although it is widely accepted that world championships cannot be overturned years down the line, that is not an opinion shared by Massa's lawyers.

To try and take himself out of the firing line, Bernie Ecclestone has since said that he 'can't remember' the interview in which he made the incriminating statements.

The scale of what happened in F1's first-ever night race really is huge, even though neither Hamilton nor Massa can be blamed.

Massa was leading the race, when Alonso decided to pit for fresh tyres. When he came out of the pits, his team-mate crashed into the barriers causing a safety car to come out.

Most drivers then came rushing into the pits to change their tyres but, of course having already pitted, Alonso didn't need to and was promoted into first place whilst Massa, who had a slow pit-stop, found himself right down the order.

It just so happened that this also helped Hamilton, who managed to come home in third behind Alonso and Nico Rosberg in the Williams.

The fact that Hamilton only won the championship by one point that season makes this a highly contentious issue with the legitimacy of his first world championship being called into question.

Massa's lawyers believe they have a good chance of winning the battle.

"We are quite confident in the evidence we have, without prejudice to the additional ones we are looking for, and without prejudice to everything that will come to light. We understand that there is even more information that has not been made public."