Felipe Massa recently triggered a legal action against the FIA over the 2008 F1 title controversy where he lost the championship to Lewis Hamilton. The former Brazilian driver decided to take this legal action after Bernie Ecclestone, former F1 supremo, shed light on the infamous Crashgate scandal, admitting that the organization knew what was going on.
This made Massa take the battle to court. However, he hit a massive roadblock set up by the FIA chief Mohammed Ben Sulayem. After the former Ferrari decided to take action against the FIA, Sulayem insisted that the F1 governing body would take necessary steps to defend itself from the lawsuit.
This left Massa in shock he felt he was never compensated. Talking about this, Massa said as per Autosport, “I was a bit surprised because we didn’t talk to him about this. We never talked about the matter. In the end, I didn’t have a conversation with him. I sent a message explaining the matter and saying I was available to talk, but he never responded to me. We never had that conversation.”
This has come after Sulayem’s response to the legal tussle. He said to Reuters, as per F1 Maximal, “I replied to him by saying: it is up to you, you have to do what you think is good for you, but the FIA will have to protect itself. We have our rules, we have our sporting rules and our statutes, which say there’s a certain period within which you can’t do anything.”
Massa’s legal action and its repercussions
Massa lost the title in 2008 to Hamilton by just a point. That wouldn’t have happened, without the Crashgate scandal. Because of this, he deiced to take matters to court. In doing so, he wants the FIA to give him justice handing the title to him, or else pay him $13 million as compensation, which he lost back in 2008 after losing the title.
The former F1 driver stated that he was doing this to keep the credibility of the sport and take justice against the injustice done to him in the 2008 Singapore GP.
However, Ecclestone said that Massa is only doing this for money. The Crashgate scandal saw Renault and Alonso fix the outcome of the GP result in Singapore. This is where Massa lost a significant advantage in the title race against Hamilton. Nevertheless, if the FIA decides to reinstate the championship, it will make Massa a world champion and take Hamilton’s tally to six.
Felipe Massa hopeful with his lawsuit, believes FIA would do justice
Massa believes that the governing body will take the necessary steps to give him justice. He is also of the opinion that the new FIA and Formula 1 Management regime will work towards making Massa the rightful winner.
The Brazilian driver, nevertheless, also trusts that the FIA should defend the sport, but not the wrong done to him back in 2008. He believes it should a all be about defending the sport and what’s fair in it.
He also understands that the FIA’s book is not made by God. Therefore, there are sectors where changes can be made under specific situations. All in all, Felipe Massa is still hopeful about having his justice through his lawsuit.
