Felipe Massa will fight “to the bitter end” for the 2008 F1 title says Former F1 driver. Felipe Massa has pledged that he will fight “to the bitter end” to be declared 2008 Formula 1 World Champion in place of British driver Lewis Hamilton.
According to the Brazilian driver’s lawyers, Felipe Massa was the victim of a plot in 2008 when he was leading the Singapore Grand Prix and his compatriot Nelson Piquet – who was driving for Renault – deliberately sent his car into a wall on lap 14. This incident prompted a safety car to enter the track and directly benefited Piquet’s team-mate, Spaniard Fernando Alonso, who went on to win the race.
Felipe Massa, for his part, failed to score after a botched pit stop, while at the end of the season, McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton beat Felipe Massa by one point to the 2008 world championship.
A year later, Nelson Piquet revealed to the media that he had been asked internally to crash his car into a wall at the 2008 Singapore GP to favour his team-mate Fernando Alonso, triggering the infamous ‘crashgate’ scandal that led to former Renault boss Flavio Briatore being banned from the sport.
To make matters worse, former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone said in a recent interview with a German media outlet that he and former FIA president Max Mosley knew at the time that Nelson Piquet had deliberately crashed in Singapore, but did nothing about it.
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Massa: “We’re going to fight for the title,”
Following Bernie Ecclestone’s statements, Felipe Massa took legal action to obtain compensation and has appointed lawyers in Great Britain, Brazil, the United States, Switzerland and France to ensure that justice is done.
“We’re going to fight for the title,” Felipe Massa told Brazilian website GE in an interview, adding that his case was not just about financial compensation.
“I’m here to make it clear that things didn’t happen in a fair way. I have nothing against Hamilton,” he said.
“This battle is about a race that was rigged [the 2008 Singapore GP]. That world title was ours, and it was taken away from us by manipulation.”
“I think it’s important for us to fight for justice. We are fighting for the title, this is our fight and we will go all the way.”
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Interviewed by the Reuters news agency a few days ago, former Formula 1 chief financial officer Bernie Ecclestone insists he no longer remembers what he said in that famous interview with F1-Insider, in which he said: “We decided to do nothing, we wanted to protect the sport and save it from a huge scandal…
“I don’t remember any of that to be honest. I don’t remember giving that interview,” Ecclestone told Reuters.
Felipe Massa’s lawyers have warned that if there is no response within 14 days, they will take legal action in the British courts without further notice.
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