Felipe Massa’s $82 Million F1 Lawsuit Heads to Courtroom Over Notorious ‘Crashgate’ Scandal
The Components 1 world is about to revisit considered one of its most controversial moments this week as Felipe Massa’s long-running authorized battle heads to a London courtroom.
The Brazilian former F1 driver is pushing ahead along with his case towards the FIA and former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone, claiming that the game didn’t act appropriately in the course of the 2008 ‘Crashgate’ scandal that price him the world championship.
What Occurred to Felipe Massa in 2008?
Massa was considered one of Components 1’s brightest stars in the course of the late 2000s and got here inside one level of successful the 2008 world championship. Nevertheless, the heartbreak was made worse by the revelation of a ‘Crashgate‘ scandal which unfolded throughout that 12 months’s Singapore Grand Prix.
Throughout that race, Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately crashed his Renault at Flip 17 below crew orders to set off a security automobile that handed the race win to his teammate Fernando Alonso. Till that time, Massa had been main comfortably. Nevertheless, after a disastrous pit cease below the protection automobile interval, he fell out of rivalry and completed exterior the factors.
Months later, the game discovered that Piquet’s crash wasn’t an accident in any respect and the Renault crew had, in reality, allegedly instructed him to crash intentionally to assist his teammate Alonso win the race, which the FIA later confirmed in 2009 by punishing Renault’s management. Nonetheless, the championship outcomes have been left untouched, and a French court docket later overturned the punishments too.
Massa had accepted the end result and moved on, however new feedback from former F1 boss Ecclestone years later reopened previous wounds. In a 2023 interview, Ecclestone appeared to confess that he and then-FIA president Max Mosley knew in regards to the deliberate crash quickly sufficient to research it earlier than the tip of the 2008 season, which may have modified the whole lot for Massa.
Nevertheless, Ecclestone later admitted that his feedback have been taken out of context and have been misplaced in translation, however the injury had been achieved by then.
Massa Takes F1 Combat to Courtroom
Feeling that the game had failed him, Massa determined to take authorized motion, and his crew filed a lawsuit in 2024, arguing that the FIA and FOM breached their very own guidelines by failing to research the Singapore race once they had the prospect.
He isn’t asking for the championship to be rewritten, however is looking for greater than $80 million in damages for what he stated was a career-altering injustice.
The listening to will happen on the Royal Courts of Justice in London and can determine if the case strikes ahead or will get dismissed completely. The defending events have fully denied any wrongdoing and are looking for to have the declare struck out earlier than it reaches a full trial.
Massa’s lawyer, Bernardo Viana, stated that this case is about extra than simply heartbreak and believes that it’s in regards to the sport’s accountability and the way F1 handles controversies that impression its integrity.
If the choose permits the case to maneuver ahead, it may open the door to one of the crucial uncommon trials in F1’s historical past, the place a driver has tried to legally problem the end result of a world championship so a few years later.
Because the listening to unfolds this week, Choose Sir Robert Jay will evaluate the proof and arguments earlier than deciding if the case strikes ahead, and a ruling may arrive as early as Friday. It should possible form how Components 1 handles its most delicate controversies within the years to come back.
