Felipe Massa, the former Ferrari driver, has filed a lawsuit in the London High Court against the Formula 1 auto racing governing body, FIA, and is seeking $82 million in damages. He has also included the series owner, Formula One Management (FOM), and Bernie Ecclestone as parties in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges that Massa lost out to Lewis Hamilton by just a single point in the Singapore Grand Prix due to the staged win by Renault for Fernando Alonso when it asked Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash in their other car. The incident, which later came to be known as the “Crashgate” scandal, led Brazilian Massa, 42, to lose the championship by the slenderest of margins. Massa is seeking damages to the tune of $82 million for losing the championship and the associated losses by way of sponsorships and other financial benefits.
Nelson Piquet Jr revealed in the next season, he was instructed by his superiors to deliberately crash his car.
Former Supreme Bernie Ecclestone was also named in the lawsuit.
In an interview, Ecclestone had confessed
“The Singapore Grand Prix results would not have mattered in the final positions in the championship and Massa would have been declared champion.”
The Brazilian law firm Vieira Rezende Advogados said,
“Mr. Massa is seeking declarations that the FIA breached its regulations by failing to promptly investigate Nelson Piquet Junior’s crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, and that had it acted properly, Mr. Massa would have won the drivers’ championship that year. Mr. Massa also seeks damages for the significant financial loss he has suffered due to the FIA’s failure, in which Mr. Ecclestone and FOM (Formula One Management) were also complicit.”
It was Hamilton’s first world championship in 2008, and he went on to win seven world titles, equaling Michael Schumacher’s record. Hamilton, however, said that it was Felipe’s decision and he preferred to focus on the present.
Incidentally, Massa did not win any major F1 race in 2008 and later was also involved in a near-fatal head injury which he suffered during the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Massa worked for Ferrari and then Williams until 2017 and remained in the Grand Prix circuit.
Ecclestone, who managed F1 for forty years before he was deposed in 2017, confessed that the sports executives were aware of the matter soon after the crash gate incident.
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