Ecclestone picks a side in Massa legal fight for Hamilton’s F1 title
Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has thrown his backing behind Lewis Hamilton as the Englishman faces the threat of losing one of his world championships.
Hamilton has won seven in total, but it is first triumph back in 2008 that has now been thrown into doubt. The then McLaren driver beat Ferrari's Felipe Massa to the title by just one point after overtaking Timo Glock on the final lap of the final race of the season.
But his title win has drawn controversy for a race held earlier that season in Singapore. Fernando Alonso won that race, with Hamilton coming third as Massa failed to score following a botched pit-stop early on.
Massa's failure to score points at Marina Bay would later prove crucial in the title fight. But it later emerged that Alonso's win had only come about after his team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr deliberately crashed to cause a safety car.
The leaders of the race immediately dived into the pits, with Massa leaving his stop while still attached to the fuel pump, wrecking his chances of winning. After an FIA investigation, the Renault team was handed a suspended disqualifcation from F1.
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Meanwhile, team principal Flavio Briatore and chief engineer Pat Symonds, who had ordered Piquet Jr to crash, were each handed bans from the sport, which were overturned on appeal.
HAVE YOUR SAY! Is Felipe Massa right to be taking legal action? Comment below.
Felipe Massa is taking legal action over Lewis Hamilton's 2008 title win (Getty Images)The allegations of a deliberate crash came too late for Massa to overturn Hamilton's title win through the FIA. But Ecclestone recently claimed that Massa had been "cheated" out of winning the world championship due to Crashgate.
In response, Massa announced that he was launching legal action against the FIA. But the former Ferrari star, who never again came close to winning the title, will not have the backing of Ecclestone, who has instead taken aim at the Brazilian.
He told Blick: "The Massa clan only cares about money. But the chances of that happening are zero. Hamilton and Mercedes could have filed a lawsuit against the FIA after the not very clean 2021 finale in Abu Dhabi.”
Massa has reiterated his stance that his legal action is just and insisted that he was robbed. The Brazilian has argued that his case his strong as he looks to the courts to settle the dispute.
"This made me lift the antenna and go after justice," he said of Ecclestone's admission. "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.
"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."
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