The High Court in London has ruled that part of the Brazilian former Scuderia Ferrari driver’s lawsuit over the outcome of the 2008 Formula 1 championship will go ahead.
But first, let’s look at what exactly happened: Massa lost that year’s title by just one point to Lewis Hamilton, then driving for McLaren. The title was decided at the Brazilian GP, the season finale, but a few weeks earlier the Singapore GP scandal had preceded it.
At the 2008 Asian Port Grand Prix, Flavio Briatore and other Renault F1 executives ordered Nelson Piquet Jr., one of the team’s two drivers, to deliberately crash into the wall at a predetermined time and place, so that the safety car could enter the track.
Their goal was to have the accident happen at exactly the right time so that the team’s other driver, Fernando Alonso, could take advantage of the safety car’s entry, make his pit stop first without losing much time, and win. And that’s exactly what happened.
Due to the deliberate accident, Massa lost the lead of the race, and after a Scuderia accident during his pit stop, he fell far behind in the standings and lost many points in his battle with Hamilton for the championship.
The matter came to light in 2009 and Briatore was banned from Formula 1 for life – although he returned last year, with the same team (now called Alpine F1).
However, the case was reopened in an interview Bernie Ecclestone gave to the German F1 Insider in 2023, where he revealed that he and then-FIA president Max Mosley had been informed of the 2008 Singapore GP scandal earlier in the season.
Ecclestone, a powerful man in Formula 1 at the time as its commercial director, even admitted that the sport’s authorities “did nothing” to protect F1’s reputation from “a huge scandal”.
Massa, based on this interview, appealed to the Court, establishing the claim that since Ecclestone-Mosley knew about the infamous “Crashgate” in 2008, they should have proceeded to cancel the results of that particular race before the end of that year – at which point the final results of the season are “written in stone”. Such a development would have crowned Massa champion.
The title cannot be changed, lost by Lewis Hamilton.
What Massa is claiming is the lost profits that the championship title would have secured for him. And he is demanding compensation of approximately 80 million euros.
In mid-November, a hearing began in London at the High Court to decide whether the case should proceed to trial.
Judge Robert Jay dismissed the charge that the FIA had breached its duty to investigate the scandal and rejected Massa’s request that the FIA make a formal declaration that he should have won the 2008 championship. The court made it clear that it “cannot be called upon to rewrite the outcome of the drivers’ championship”.
The FIA statement, in particular, stated that in its decision “the Court dismisses the following charges against the FIA:
-The charge of breach of contract, which was based on the allegation that the FIA’s failure to investigate Crashgate in 2008 was a breach of the regulations. It was dismissed because there was no real prospect of success and because the offence was time-barred.
-The charge of tort, which was based on the same allegation, was also dismissed as time-barred.
-The request for declarations that the FIA had breached its regulations by failing to investigate Crashgate in a timely manner in 2008 and that, had it acted, Massa would have won the championship. The Court found that there was no real prospect of such declarations being admissible.The Court emphasized that there are “many obstacles” for Massa in terms of causation, that is, in proving that the alleged conspiracy caused his losses.
It also expressed “serious doubts” about the breach of duty charge, calling for either its abandonment or further substantiation under French law before deciding whether to allow it to proceed – and that only in the context of the conspiracy charge, as the standalone tort charge has expired.
The Court decided that the charge of illegal conspiracy against the three defendants can proceed to a full trial, but in a narrowly limited context and under the conditions that Felipe Massa will reformulate the charge, provide the necessary expert opinion on French law and after examining any appeal requests.
