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The former Brazilian F1 driver Felipe Massa, has taken legal action against F1 and FIA bosses to seek compensation for losing the Driver's Championship to Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain in 2008. The 42-year-old, competing for Ferrari at that time, was involved in an alleged conspiracy during the tainted Singapore GP, which led to him getting cheated out of the title.
From pole position at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, Felipe Massa was leading the Singapore GP, when the fellow Brazilian Nelson Piquet was involved in a crash into the wall on lap 14 of 61. This incident helped his Spanish teammate Fernando Alonso, who won the race for Renault, after the Ferrari driver was out of the points position due to a bungled pitstop.
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A year later, Nelson Piquet had revealed that his team bosses at Renault told him to crash the car, which led to the incident getting referred to as “Crashgate.” The Renault managing director, Flavio Briatore, and the executive director of engineering, Pat Symonds were subsequently banned from F1
Notably, the Letter before Claim from the lawyers of Felipe Massa, addressing Stefano Domenicali, the CEO of F1, and Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the FIA president, as reported by Reuters, reads, “Simply put, Mr Massa is the rightful 2008 Driver’s Champion, and F1 and FIA deliberately ignored the misconduct that cheated him out of that title.”
“Mr Massa is unable to fully quantify his losses at this stage but estimates that they are likely to exceed tens of millions of Euros. This amount does not cover the serious moral and reputational losses suffered by Mr Massa,” the letter added.
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Furthermore, without a satisfactory response to the contrary, Felipe Massa intends to “pursue legal action in order to seek compensation for the harm he has suffered as well as recognition that, but for those unlawful acts, he would have been awarded the 2008 Championship.”
The letter also states that if there is no substantive reply within 14 days, then, the lawyers “anticipate being instructed to commence legal proceedings in the English courts without further notice to you”.
