Breakthrough in 'Crashgate': How Massa Plans to Move Forward
Mar.19 - Felipe Massa says he will continue his fight to be recognised as 2008 world champion despite securing an initial legal breakthrough in the long-running 'Crashgate' case.
A court recently ordered FOM, the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone to cover part of the Brazilian's legal costs - but Massa insists the case is about far more than money.
"My fight is to be recognised as a champion," he told Diario Sport. "Because what happened to me isn't fair in any sport."
Massa lost the 2008 title to Lewis Hamilton by a single point, and he believes Renault's manipulation of the Singapore GP heavily influenced the outcome.
"We knew the race was rigged, but we found out in 2009 and we had no way to appeal," he said.
"Once a driver receives the trophy and the year changes, the result cannot be changed - except in cases of doping."
However, Massa points to later comments by former F1 supremo Ecclestone, who admitted key figures knew about the scandal during the 2008 season but chose not to act.
"They knew that year the race was rigged and they deliberately didn't launch an investigation," Massa said.
"Because of that, they didn't give me the opportunity to fight for my championship."
The former Ferrari driver drew a clear distinction between sporting defeat and what he sees as injustice.
"Sport is sport," he said. "If your car breaks down, it's sport. If you lose by one point, that's sport.
"But what happened in Singapore isn't sport."
Massa says he remains confident the reopened case will ultimately go further.
"I believe in justice," he said. "In this matter, we have to win."
The 44-year-old admitted the case has now become his main priority. "Now I'm only thinking about justice for 2008," Massa said.
3 F1 Fan comments on “Breakthrough in 'Crashgate': How Massa Plans to Move Forward”
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Good on Filipe, he is absolutely correct and the world knows it. For goodness sake the detractors are probably English fans who are worried it would mean one less title for Hamilton as they believe F1 should only be won by English drivers. I have followed F1 ever since I saw my first race on TV in the 60's or early 70's. I also remember just a few years back the show where Ecclestone quite blatently said what Filipe has stated. Bernie clearly stated that the people in control knew there had been cheating but did nothing about it. The records should be amended to show Massa as 2008 World Champion as he would have been if not for that cheating. On current F1 I think they are making a huge mistake in the Hybrid mess they have now. What would have been a far more sensible idea was to go down the path that Toyota have gone now in developing engines to run on Hydrogen which are Green or if not that then progress with the use of Plant based fuel as they are now doing but remain with combustion engines. The whole thing now relies on batteries which are not up to the job and are definitely not as suitable to F1 racing. It is supposed to be about racing the FASTEST cars
If they changed the result of the 2008 WDC they would have to change the result of the 2021 WDC.
. On current F1 I think they are making a huge mistake in the Hybrid mess they have now. What would have been a far more sensible idea was to go down the path that Toyota have gone now in developing engines to run on Hydrogen which are Green or if not that then progress with the use of Plant based fuel as they are now doing but remain with combustion engines
I completely agree