Felipe Massa claims he was ROBBED of ‘a perfect Championship’ in 2008 as he continues his legal fight to reclaim the title
Lewis Hamilton won the 2008 Drivers' Championship by a single point on the last lap of the last race.
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Felipe Massa (via IMAGO)
Felipe Massa, the eleven-time Foruma 1 race winner, lost the F1 Drivers’ Championship in 2008 under controversial circumstances. The Brazilian believes the loss to Lewis Hamilton was due to a lack of responsibility shown by the FIA. He wants FIA and FOM to overturn the 2008 Singapore GP results due to the crashgate.
Massa has been very vocal about his demands recently. He believes the lawsuit is needed for the sake of the sport, for him, his country, his fans, and Ferrari itself. Massa’s legal team has given a wide range of arguments to back up their allegation against the federation, including false racing rules and the precise timing of the safety car’s deployment.
In an interview with Infoebae, Massa said, “I was robbed, for sure. It was a perfect Championship, which ended by one point at Interlagos. But then we saw that there was a manipulated race (Singapore), and the result should have been canceled.”
Massa thinks they kept the Singapore race result to protect F1’s reputation. According to him, Bernie Ecclestone, in an interview, claimed the 2008 Championship was rigged, and Singapore should’ve been canceled. They knew about this manipulation in 2008.
“It’s a case of manipulation. We have to work for justice for the sport. We will see what answer they (FIA and FOM) give us and whether we will go into court or a tribunal, that’s something we have to decide,” he explained. Massa was asked if he thought he was “robbed of the title, but not of his dignity”, he replied, “For sure. I was the champion for 38 seconds, but it wasn’t true. I was champion forever.”
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FIA’s reaction to Felipe Massa’s claims
The governing body of Formula 1, Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, or in short, the FIA has considered Massa’s lawyers’ request and launched an in-house investigation to reflect upon Massa’s claim. Massa’s legal team extended their response deadline for F1’s investigation from October 12 to 15 November.
The Brazillian’s legal team thinks it’s better to provide time for F1’s investigation as they want to see if the new governance will consider the injustice and scandal Massa had to go through. Massa told autosport.com that he believed his team (Ferrari at the time) would support him in his lawsuit. Although there’s nothing official about Ferrari’s stand on Massa’s lawsuit as of now.
According to Massa, Ferrari is waiting to see what’s going to happen. If F1’s own investigation pulls out some results, maybe then we can see Ferrari’s stand on this situation.
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Syed Talib Haider
(1039 Articles Published)