Massa seeking over $80m in damages over 2008 title loss

Felipe Massa has filed a lawsuit seeking over $80million in damages from the FIA, Formula 1, and former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone over the 2008 Crashgate scandal.

Renault driver Nelson Piquet Jr was ordered to crash deliberately during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix in order to help Fernando Alonso’s strategy, with the Spaniard going on to win a race Massa had been leading. In the resulting safety car period, Massa suffered a pit stop issue and finished outside the points, while title rival Lewis Hamilton came home third to score six points.

The scandal only became public a year later, and with the FIA statutes stating a result can’t be changed following the end-of-year prize giving ceremony, the result remained unchanged. However, comments attributed to Ecclestone last year suggested he and the FIA were aware of allegations relating to it before the end of the 2008 season.

Hamilton beat Massa to that year’s championship by a single point in the end, and last year the Brazilian launched a legal challenge, with his lawyers issuing a letter to both the FIA and Formula One Management (FOM) that read: “Simply put, Mr Massa is the rightful 2008 Drivers’ Champion, and F1 and FIA deliberately ignored the misconduct that cheated him out of that title.

“Mr Massa is unable to fully quantify his losses at this stage but estimates that they are likely to exceed tens of millions of Euros.

“This amount does not cover the serious moral and reputational losses suffered by Mr Massa.”

Having not received an acceptable response, Massa’s lawyers are now seeking more than $80million in damages and an admission from the FIA that it didn’t follow its regulations correctly.