"Wronged" Felipe Massa presses on with legal fight for Lewis Hamilton's F1 title

23 May 2023 , 07:19

1034     0

Lewis Hamilton beat Felipe Massa (left) to the 2008 F1 title (Image: Getty Images)

Lewis Hamilton's 2008 F1 title win continues to hang in balance with Felipe Massa pressing on with his legal bid to get his second place finish overturned.

In only his second full season with McLaren, Hamilton won his maiden Championship in sensational style on the final day, overtaking Timo Glock during a final-lap downpour to finish fourth. Despite Massa taking the chequered flag, it was the British driver who finished top of the standings by a solitary point.

But that outcome became clouded on controversy last year when former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone made a sensational admission regarding the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix that year. That race went down in infamy when Nelson Piquet Jr later alleged that he had been told by Renault to deliberately crash his car to benefit teammate Fernando Alonso - with the subsequent safety car scuppering Massa as he finished 13th, with Hamilton third.

Removing the result of that race would have elevated Masa from runner-up to world champion. And Ecclestone, 92, recently told F1 Insider that he regretted not taking action at the time, admitting he felt the Brazilian driver had been "cheated" out of the championship.

Massa, 42, who never again came close to landing an elusive title, duly responded by announcing he was considering legal action against the FIA. And he's now reiterated his stance, arguing he has a strong case at his disposal: "I consider myself with great chances of having had that title," he told esportelandia. "If you remember Singapore, it was a steal. After Bernie Ecclestone spoke about it, we are trying to understand, legally, if there is any chance of going back."

Inside De Vries' long road to F1 including pressure after Hamilton example set

And he implied that Ecclestone's admission essentially proved that the outcome in Singapore was fixed: "So it just goes to show that I was totally wronged by what happened that year, in a stolen race," he added. "This made me lift the antenna and go after justice. I'm not a lawyer, but everyone knows, I was clearly wronged and I think justice is part of our fight to get what happened right.

Felipe Massa is challenging the title outcome in 2008 (Getty Images)

Hamilton celebrates with McLaren team manager Ron Dennis in Brazil after his first title (AFP via Getty Images)

Join the debate! Should Felipe Massa be handed Lewis Hamilton's 2008 title? Let us know your thoughts below.

"That was a stolen run. It was manipulation, which is a very serious thing. It wasn't an engine that broke down. There was also an engine that broke, but that's part of the game. They made Nelsinho Piquet crash because he wanted to help his teammate, who was last in the race, to win. They totally did a manipulation for a result."

The veteran of 272 Grand Prix's, who now races in the Stock Car Pro Series, also cited McLaren were sanctioned the previous season for copying elements of Ferrari's car design. They were fined and excluded from the Constructors' Championship, with Massa claiming that although that situation was addressed, it made little sense the Piquet Jnr situation was not.

However, the current FIA statutes are currently against the former Scuderia and Williams man. The regulations dictate that the classification of an F1 season cannot be changed as soon as the awards ceremony at the end of the year is complete - a situation that always came to light in 2021 when Mercedes had until the following Thursday to decide whether or not to activate an appeal over the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Fraser Watson