Felipe Massa hopes that the legal case to reclaim the 2008 World Championship title will conclude soon for a very simple reason. Everything has a price: even the 2008 Formula 1 World Championship title, as Felipe Massa well knows. The Brazilian has initiated a legal case against the FIA regarding the events now known as Crashgate.
In March of this year, the former Ferrari driver filed a lawsuit not only against the Federation but also against former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone and Formula One Management. His lawyers have claimed that Felipe Massa should be “declared the legitimate winner of the 2008 World Championship, which he lost to Lewis Hamilton by one point, in light of the Crashgate saga that tainted that year’s Singapore Grand Prix.”
Felipe Massa was leading the race when Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately crashed his car into the barriers. That incident triggered a series of events that led to his then Renault teammate, Fernando Alonso, winning the Grand Prix. The Brazilian fell victim to a disastrous pit stop by Ferrari and finished in fifteenth place.
Former race director Charlie Whiting and then FIA president Max Mosley were aware of the scandal. They remained silent to protect F1 and the FIA.
Felipe Massa’s law firm, Vieira Rezende Advogados, filed the case with the High Court in London, accusing the FIA of “violating its regulations by failing to promptly investigate Nelson Piquet Junior’s crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.” If they had acted correctly, Felipe Massa would have won the drivers’ championship that year. Additionally, Massa’s lawyers are seeking damages.
In an exclusive interview with RacingNews365, the former Ferrari driver confirmed that the case has been ongoing for “four or five months” and hopes it will conclude soon. However, bringing it to an end is impossible because the bureaucratic process is very slow.
“I never thought I would be part of something like this in my entire life,” he admitted. The Brazilian is not only paying a very high price for this injustice, but it is also costing him a lot financially. “It’s not easy. It’s also very expensive; a lot of money. I really hope that things end soon. But we have been waiting for justice for so long that we must hope the truth comes out.” – the former Ferrari driver concluded.
Source: f1ingenerale
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