Felipe Massa is still fighting to reverse the outcome of the 2008 World Championship and deny Lewis Hamilton his first victory.
Felipe Massa is optimistic that Ferrari will ultimately back him in his attempt to win back the 2008 World Championship, much like Toto Wolff stood by Lewis Hamilton during the contentious 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Massa filed a lawsuit, citing the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix as the basis for his appeal, against Formula One and its regulatory body, the FIA.
Earlier this year, Bernie Ecclestone hinted that he and Max Mosley knew about the ‘crashgate’ controversy before it became widely known, but he decided against taking any legal action to preserve the reputation of the sport. After a disastrous pit stop that followed Nelson Piquet Jr.’s “crash,” Massa finished outside the points in that race, with Hamilton coming in third.
After the season ended, Renault was finally held accountable for the “crashgate” incident. In the now-famous Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2021, Hamilton was a part of another contentious championship outcome that left Mercedes enraged with former race director Michael Masi.
Before the upcoming season began, Masi was finally fired by the FIA as a result of Wolff and Hamilton airing their complaints.
And Massa, who is pleading with Ferrari to start supporting him, thinks Wolff’s remarks regarding the 2021 World Championship will only strengthen his own argument to be crowned the 2008 champion. “We [Ferrari] lost the championship together in the end, so I still expect to be together and have support,” Massa said to RacingNews365.
“I love Ferrari, it is part of my heart and I am definitely a big Ferrari fan and will be all my life for everything [that happened] during my time with the team, with the fans, the opportunities and the dreams that I had. So I definitely expect them to be on my side, because we lost the championship together through the manipulation that happened.
“Anytime that you hear about Toto Wolff talking about 2021, he is the most supportive person, so with that, I cannot really believe that Ferrari won’t be on that situation with me. For the moment, they are quiet, but I really believe they will be on my side, and I really hope that is the case because that is the correct thing for what happened to us.
“What happened to me, happened to Ferrari as well.” Wolff admitted earlier this year that Massa’s legal action against the FIA could end up setting a precedent that may also have an implication on the 2021 World Championship.
“This is clearly not something that anybody saw coming, the rules are pretty clear in Formula One,” he said. “If there’s a civil case behind it, it would certainly set a precedent, whatever it is. We are looking from the sidelines with curiosity.”
Leave a Reply