Felipe Massa has insisted that the FIA and Formula 1 will not be given any further extensions to the deadline for responding to threats of legal action over the 2008 F1 World Championship, which the Brazilian believes he lost as a result of a “conspiracy”.
Felipe Massa lost the 2008 F1 world championship by one point to Britain’s Lewis Hamilton, but the former Ferrari driver believes he was cheated by F1 and the FIA, claiming he was the victim of a conspiracy that cost him the championship that year.
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According to his lawyers, Felipe Massa was the victim of a conspiracy in 2008 when he was leading the Singapore Grand Prix and his compatriot Nelson Piquet – then driving for Renault – deliberately sent his single-seater 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 failed to score any points after an unsuccessful pitstop, while at the end of the season, McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton beat Felipe Massa to the 2008 world championship by a single point.
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, sparking the infamous ‘crashgate’ scandal that led to former Renault boss Flavio Briatore being banned from the sport.
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To make matters worse, former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has stated that he and former FIA President Max Mosley were aware at the time that Nelson Piquet had deliberately crashed in Singapore, but did nothing about it.
Against this backdrop, Felipe Massa is seeking compensation and has appointed lawyers in Great Britain, Brazil, the United States, Switzerland and France to ensure that justice is done….quinze years after the 2008 season.
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Massa says time is up
Recently, Massa’s lawyers gave Formula 1 and the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) another month to respond to threats of legal action over the 2008 world championship, with the original deadline extended to November 15 to allow F1 and the FIA to complete an internal investigation.
Felipe Massa now expects to receive a response from both parties to see if the case will have to be taken to court: “We are waiting for their response to see if the case will have to be taken to court,” Felipe Massa told Reuters on Thursday.
“Logically, there will be no more requests, no more ‘give us another month’. That will be the limit and a decision will have to be taken,” insisted the Brazilian.
If Felipe Massa were to win his case, it would mean that Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton would lose one of the seven titles he has won in his career.
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The only trouble with this is that F1 have proved, since his first season where he lost to Raikkonon, that the FIA NEVER wanted Hamilton to win a championship, and they are still at it!!