Lewis Hamilton should lose his first Drivers’ Championship, according to Felipe Massa.
In his attempt to deny Lewis Hamilton the Drivers’ Championship title, which he won by a single point in 2008, Felipe Massa has vowed to “fight to the end.” The Brazilian driver is now adamant that the FIA wrongfully denied him the championship, even though he was not the winner of the season’s final race.
Fernando Alonso won the Singapore Grand Prix, depriving Massa of his only victory of the season earlier in the campaign. Later, it was discovered that Renault had deliberately ordered Nelson Piquet Jr., the Spaniard’s teammate, tocrash in order to
Earlier in the campaign, Massa saw a victory taken away from him at the Singapore Grand Prix as Fernando Alonso claimed his only win of the season. It was later found that Renault had ordered the Spaniard’s team-mate, Nelson Piquet Jr, to crash on purpose in order to bring out the safety car.
The incident set off the ‘crashgate’ controversy, which turned out to be one of the most significant in the annals of the sport. It reared its ugly head once more in April when former Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone disclosed that he was aware of the conspiracy prior to acknowledging that the Singaporean result ought to have been nullified. Ecclestone has since apologized and reiterated his denial of knowing of any conspiracy.
Massa responded by announcing he would be fighting a legal case to get the 2008 title overturned and has since insisted that he is willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done.
“They robbed me, for sure,” he told Brazilian outlet Infobae as part of a wide-ranging interview. “It was a perfect championship, which ended by one point at Interlagos. But later we saw that there was a rigged race [in Singapore] and the result should have been cancelled.
“They refrained from doing it so as not to tarnish the F1 brand. In an interview, Bernie Ecclestone declared that the 2008 championship was his to win and that the Singapore race ought to be called off. They knew about the manipulation in 2008 and did not do it.
It was a very challenging situation for me. Our multinational legal team comprised attorneys from six different nations. We will fight to the very end because what transpired was unfair to Ferrari, the fans, the sport, and myself as well as to my country.”
Massa went on to explain that he and his legal team, who are vastly experienced in the field of sporting disputes, are still waiting on a formal response from the FIA. He also suggested that he could seek financial compensation from the governing body but insisted that he is primarily fighting the case for sporting reasons.
“They are people who worked for a long time on cases like this,” added Massa. “It is a case of manipulation. We have to work for justice in sports. We will see the response they give us and if we are going to go to court or a tribunal, that is something we have to decide.
“Surely in the fight there is money to claim, but I base the claim on the championship. The trophy is the most important thing for me.”
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