Felipe Massa’s Ferrari race engineer claims the Brazilian has the right to pursue justice over 2008 F1 championship battle

Felipe Massa lodged a legal battle last year to overturn the 2008 F1 championship results.


Felipe Massa’s Ferrari race engineer claims the Brazilian has the right to pursue justice over 2008 F1 championship battle

Felipe Massa (via IMAGO)

Felipe Massa came close to winning the 2008 F1 world championship. The former Ferrari driver lost out to Lewis Hamilton on the final lap of the season finale at Interlagos. However, in 2023 Massa initiated a legal battle over the results of that year’s championship. This came after ex-F1 Supremo Bernie Ecclestone allegedly admitted that F1 and the FIA were aware of the infamous Crashgate scandal in 2008. Now, the Brazilian driver’s former Ferrari race engineer Rob Smedley has defended the 42-year-old.

Massa has previously claimed that the reason for this legal battle is not money. Rather, the Brazilian driver simply wants to seek justice. Smedley claimed that Felipe Massa is passionate about this case. The 50-year-old highlighted that the Brazilian driver had a compelling argument that he was doing this for justice and not for any other motive.

If this is something that he [Felipe Massa] feels strongly and passionately about - and he when he talks about it he's very compelling and convincing in the fact that he's doing this for what he feels is justice. 
Rob Smedley told The Race
YouTube video

Subsequently, the former Ferrari race engineer mentioned that everyone has the personal right to pursue justice and this was the case with Massa as well. The Brazilian driver wants to get the championship results changed due to the 2008 Singapore GP. Although, the case might be dragged on for the next several months.

FS Video
Everybody should have their personal right to pursue whatever they feel is just. That's the case with Felipe here.

Felipe Massa’s relations with Formula 1 have deteriorated since the start of this legal fight. The Brazilian driver was not invited to several races despite being an F1 ambassador. So much so, that Massa claimed that he would not attend the Brazilian GP last season. However, the former Ferrari driver eventually did go to his home race after being invited by F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali.

Felipe Massa
Felipe Massa (via IMAGO)

Even former Ferrari Team Principal and FIA President Jean Todt claimed that the 2008 Singapore GP should’ve been canceled. Although, many have criticized Massa’s efforts to overturn a championship result from 15 years ago.

Unfortunately, there has been a lack of updates regarding this legal case in the past couple of months. Felipe Massa has remained adamant that he deserves to be the champion instead of Lewis Hamilton. However, it remains to be seen if the Brazilian driver wins the case against Formula 1 in the coming months.

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