Felipe Massa is said to be exploring his options for a legal challenge on his potential 2008 Drivers Championship.
Back in February Bernie Ecclestone made bold claims about the legitimacy of Lewis Hamilton’s first Drivers Championship in 2008 with McLaren. Stating that he feels Felipe Massa should be the true drivers champion that year.
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The 92 year old stated that he was aware of the whole situation surrounding the Renault crashgate incident much earlier than when it became public knowledge.
The incident saw Nelson Piquet Jr crash on purpose to enable his teammate Fernando Alonso, to take the victory in Singapore thanks to a late safety car.
Bernie Ecclestone states that he and Max Moseley had learned that Nelson Piquet Jr had crashed his car on purpose at the Singaporean Grand Prix, after the season had been classified. That it was too late at this point to overturn the results, so he chose to protect the sport instead.
“Back then, there was a rule that a world championship classification after the FIA awards ceremony at the end of the year was untouchable. So Hamilton was presented with the world championship and everything was fine.
“But, according to the statutes, we should have cancelled the race in Singapore under these conditions. That means it would never have happened for the world championship standings. Then Felipe Massa would have become world champion and not Lewis Hamilton.”
“I still feel sorry for Massa today. He won the final at his home race in Sao Paulo and did everything right. He was cheated out of the title he deserved while Hamilton had all the luck in the world and won his first championship.
“Today I would have arranged things differently. Michael Schumacher is still the sole record world champion, for me. Even if the statistics say otherwise.”
Bernie Ecclestone talking to F1 insider
What actually happened?
The Incident
At the Singapore Grand Prix on 28th September 2008. Nelson Piquet Jr crashed his Renault R28 into the wall at turn 17 on the 14th lap of the race. This necessitated the release of the safety car. Fernando Alonso; who had previously made an early pitstop was promoted to first, as all other cars pitted under safety car conditions. Alonso won the race after starting 15th on the grid. Piquet described his crash as a “simple mistake”.
The Aftermath
Roll on to the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix and Renault drop Piquet for not scoring any points in the first 10 races. In a somewhat acrimonious split at that. Nelson Piquet Jr, son of the 3 time World Champion Nelson Piquet Snr alleged that he had been asked by the team to deliberately crash to improve the race situation for Alonso. This sparked an investigation of Renault F1 for race fixing by the FIA (Formula One’s governing body). After a short period of time, Renault F1 were charged with conspiracy. It was then announced that Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds had left the team.
The Consequence
In the end the Renault F1 team had been handed a disqualification from the Formula One championship. Briatore was banned from all Formula One events and FIA-sanctioned events indefinitely, whilst Symonds received a five-year ban.
What can Felipe Massa do now?
Well in reality there is probably not a lot that can come of all this. The rumour says that Felipe is looking into what can be done from a legal standpoint. But this happened years ago now. Changing the classification of the championship will open a whole new can of worms entirely and set a very risky legal precedent.
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