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Felipe MassaThe legal case over the 2008 Formula 1 Crashgate scandal begins in the High Court in London on Wednesday
Ex-F1 driver Massa is seeking £60m damages from F1, the FIA and Ecclestone for allegedly covering up the scandal at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, when Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately crashed under instructions from his Renault team.
Massa argues that the after-effects of the accident cost him the 2008 F1 World Championship Lewis Hamilton claimed on Last stop of the last race in BrazilFerrari star Massa missed out by a point.
The case will begin on Wednesday, after the suit was filed at the High Court in London last March. Massa will be represented by Nick DeMarco Casey. Yet Ecclestone, who was F1 boss at the time, has ignored Massa’s claim.
“There is no way in the world that anyone can change or cancel that race,” Ecclestone, 94, said. many times Last month. “There’s always something going on where someone might want to cancel it.
“To try to convince the president of FIA To call a special meeting where the FIA would have to cancel the race – there were no provisions for that to happen.
“Max [Mosley, former FIA president] Knew there wasn’t enough evidence to do anything at that time. It started later when the young Nelson decided he wanted to say something when he learned he was not going to get a seat for the following year.
“Max was not saying we should hide it but was saying it is not good for the image of Formula 1.”
Ecclestone’s new comments about the scandal in Singapore in 2023 prompted Massa to take legal action, with Brazilian lawyers alleging that their client was “the victim of a conspiracy”.
‘Crashgate’ caused a stir in Formula 1 when Renault’s Fernando Alonso won the race at the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix in 2008, before it emerged that his teammate Piquet Jr. had deliberately crashed to bring about a safety car which went into the hands of Alonso.
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That safety car prompted a Massa pit stop that Ferrari mishandled, with Massa ultimately finishing 13th while Hamilton finished third – a difference of six points, a swing that ultimately affected the title result.
While Renault and team boss Flavio Briatore were penalized in 2009, with the race results standing despite Massa’s protest, FIA statutes made it clear that it is impossible to overturn the classification from each season after the FIA awards ceremony has been completed for that year, a rule set out in the FIA International Sporting Code.
Ecclestone told F1-Insider in 2023 that both he and then-FIA president Max Mosley were aware of the ‘Crashgate’ scandal in 2008, but declined to publicize the series of events to avoid causing a “big scandal” to the sport.
In full, Ecclestone’s comments read: “We wanted to protect the sport and save it from a major scandal. That’s why I used divine language to persuade my former driver Nelson Piquet to stay sober for a while.
“At the time, there was a rule that the World Championship classification was untouchable after the FIA awards ceremony at the end of the year. So the trophy was presented to Hamilton and everything was fine.
“We had enough information in time to investigate the matter. According to the law, we should have canceled the race in Singapore under these conditions.”
“This means that this would never have happened for the championship standings. And then Felipe Massa would have become world champion, not Lewis Hamilton,
Ecclestone has since said that he does not remember the interview, adding: “It was an interview I did with someone in Germany and the person’s English wasn’t that good at the time and he was taking notes, and it was picked up by someone in England.
“My lawyers, the FIA and F1 don’t understand how this can be heard in court.”
However, Massa has stated earlier His eagerness for “the truth to come out” and his desire for “justice” to come out remained intact.
He told The Times: “Accountability is vital to prevent future fraud. Those entrusted with the responsibility of safeguarding the game have plainly breached their duties, and cannot be allowed to profit from concealing their own misconduct.
“This kind of conduct is unacceptable in any walk of life, especially in a sport that is followed by millions of people, including children. We will pursue this to the end to achieve a fair and impartial outcome for ourselves, for motorsport in Brazil and for the sport as a whole.”
In 2023, Hamilton said about the case: “My memory is very bad. I’m really only focused on the here and now… I’m not focused on what happened 15 years ago.”
Despite legal action, Massa does not seem to be able to officially overturn the result – the FIA’s own International Sporting Code states that protests and reviews expire 14 days after the competition and four days before that year’s award-giving ceremony.
Massa’s best performance in F1 came in the 2008 season, as he retired in 2017, while Hamilton won six more titles with Mercedes, and a joint record of seven F1 world championships with Michael Schumacher. Hamilton, now 40, joined Ferrari earlier this year.