Former Ferrari F1 driver Felipe Massa reportedly blamed his personal errors, not the ‘Crashgate’ scandal, for robbing him of the 2008 world title.
Massa’s authorized motion in opposition to F1 administration, former F1 supervisor Bernie Ecclestone and governing physique the FIA started at London’s Excessive Courtroom on Wednesday.
In keeping with BBC Sport, on the primary day of the three-day listening to, Ecclestone’s lawyer David Quest instructed the courtroom that Massa had “carried out very poorly” on the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.
The race was controversial after Renault driver Nelson Piquet Jr. intentionally crashed, bringing out the protection automotive and serving to teammate Fernando Alonso win.
Massa took motion after Ecclestone admitted in a 2023 F1 Insider interview that he and then-FIA president Max Mosley knew Piquet had crashed deliberately, however that they took no motion to guard F1’s picture.
Quest stated the 95-year-old billionaire “doesn’t bear in mind ever giving this interview.” Ecclestone had beforehand claimed he had been mistranslated.
Massa is looking for £64 million in damages, claiming that had an earlier investigation been carried out, the race would have been canceled and he would have been topped world champion.
The Brazilian missed out on the 2008 world title by one level to Lewis Hamilton within the remaining race of the season. The then McLaren driver overtook Timo Glock on the remaining nook of the ultimate lap to take fifth place.
Piquet’s crash modified the destiny of the 2008 Singapore GP
Massa stated his lawsuit would fail.
Quest stated Massa’s claims have been a “misguided try to reinstate the outcomes of the 2008 F1 Drivers’ Championship”.
“Mr Massa claims that if the FIA had handled the accident, he would have gained the drivers’ championship,” he continued.
“These declarations deal with the courtroom as a sporting ‘debate membership’ and name for it to have interaction in counterfactual motion concerning ‘officiating’ a sporting occasion that happened practically 17 years in the past.”
Ecclestone’s attorneys argued that Hamilton was “equally uncovered to accidents”.
FIA authorized consultant John Mehrzad KC stated Massa’s authorized motion was “overly formidable and torturous” and “clearly overlooks his personal quite a few errors”.
In the meantime, FOM’s consultant, Anneliese Dei KC, stated in a written submission that this declare “will fail”.
“In truth, it wasn’t the introduction of the protection automotive that modified Mr. Massa’s historical past, however a sequence of subsequent race errors he and his group made with 47 laps left within the race,” she continued.
“The easy truth is that on the Singapore Grand Prix and all through the 2008 season, Mr. Hamilton outperformed Mr. Massa and others.”
