Ex-Ferrari F1 driver Felipe Massa has been informed that his personal errors, not the ‘Crashgate’ scandal, value him the 2008 world title.
Massa’s authorized motion in opposition to Formulation One Administration, former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, and governing physique the FIA started on Wednesday on the Excessive Courtroom in London.
On the opening day of a three-day listening to, Ecclestone’s lawyer David Quest informed the courtroom that Massa “carried out very poorly” on the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, based on BBC Sport.
The race was marred by controversy after Renault driver Nelson Piquet Jr intentionally crashed to trigger a Security Automobile which helped teammate Fernando Alonso win the race.
Massa took motion after Ecclestone admitted in an interview to F1-Insider in 2023 that he after which FIA president Max Mosley had been conscious that Piquet crashed on objective, however took no motion to guard F1’s picture.
Quest mentioned that the 95-year-old billionaire “doesn’t keep in mind giving this interview”. Ecclestone had beforehand claimed he had been mistranslated.
Massa is looking for £64m in damages, insisting that an earlier investigation would have seen the race canceled, leading to him turning into the world champion.
The Brazilian misplaced out on the 2008 world title to Lewis Hamilton by a single level on the remaining race of the season, after the then McLaren driver overtook Timo Glock for fifth place on the final nook of the ultimate lap.
Piquet’s crash modified the future of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix
Massa informed his case will fail
Quest mentioned that Massa’s claims “are a misguided try to reopen the outcomes of the 2008 F1 Drivers’ Championship”.
“Mr Massa argues that, however for the FIA’s dealing with of the crash, he would have received the Drivers’ Championship,” he continued.
“These declarations deal with the courtroom as a sports activities ‘debating membership’, asking it to embark upon a counterfactual train regarding the ‘refereeing’ of a sporting occasion which passed off practically 17 years in the past.”
Ecclestone’s lawyer argued that Hamilton was “equally uncovered to the crash”.
The FIA’s authorized consultant, John Mehrzad KC, mentioned Massa’s authorized motion is “torturous as it’s overly formidable” and “conspicuously overlooks a listing of his personal errors”.
In the meantime, Anneliese Day KC, engaged on behalf of FOM, mentioned in written submissions that the declare “will fail”.
“In fact, it was not the deployment of the security automotive which modified the course of historical past for Mr Massa, however slightly a sequence of subsequent racing errors by him and his workforce in the course of the remaining 47 laps of the race,” she continued.
“The easy truth is that over the course of each the Singapore Grand Prix and throughout the 2008 season, Mr Hamilton outperformed Mr Massa and everybody else.”
