Felipe Massa’s legal team claims they have sufficient evidence to overturn Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 F1 title win

Felipe Massa's legal team made it clear that the case is not for financial gains.

Felipe Massa’s legal team claims they have sufficient evidence to overturn Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 F1 title win

Felipe Massa & Lewis Hamilton (image via IMAGO)

Felipe Massa lost the 2007 F1 championship to Lewis Hamilton in the title decider at Brazil’s Interlagos. However, the former Ferrari driver is now fighting to claim the title after Bernie Ecclestone admitted that F1 was aware of the Crashgate scandal that year. Now, Massa’s legal team has made it clear that the target of this battle is not financial.

Bernardo Viana, part of the Sao Paulo Vieira Rezende Advogados law firm, that represents Massa claimed that the main objective is to overturn the 2008 title result. This would lead to Felipe Massa being crowned the champion after 15 years. Many believed that this battle was for the Brazilian to gain financial benefits but that has been dismissed. Viana told Motorsport.com, “The objective is to bring the trophy home. It’s not financial.”

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Massa’s legal team remains confident in the evidence regarding the knowledge of Crashgate within F1 and the FIA. Viana insisted that all the events from 2008 and 2009 must be brought to light. As such, the legal team was hopeful that this could change the championship results in favor of the Brazilian driver. Certainly, this could play a major role in this case.

He said, “We want everything that happened in 2008/2009 to come to light. We are quite confident in the evidence we have, without prejudice to the additional ones we are looking for, and without prejudice to everything that will come to light.”

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Can Felipe Massa be crowned the 2008 world champion?

Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton during the 2008 season (image via The Independent)
Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton during the 2008 season (image via The Independent)

Felipe Massa lost the 2008 world championship to Lewis Hamilton by just a single point. Hamilton won the title on the last lap. However, the Brazilian driver had lost out on a potential points finish in Singapore after an error in the pitstops that took place after the Crashgate scandal. Flavio Briatore was found to be the mastermind of this scandal and was banned from the sport.

However, former F1 ‘Supremo’ Bernie Ecclestone recently revealed that F1 and the FIA had known about this massive scandal during 2008 itself. The sport decided not to take any action during the season in order to avoid controversies. F1 was already facing the huge McLaren ‘SpyGate’ scandal at this time. McLaren was fined $100 Million for obtaining confidential information regarding Ferrari’s car from a Ferrari engineer.

Thus, Felipe Massa’s legal team is confident with its case to overturn the 2008 championship standings. The Brazilian driver and his team believe that he is the rightful winner of the title as the Singapore GP should not be included in the championship. However, it will be a long-drawn legal battle before fans can expect to see a decision on this case.

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