Felipe Massa has reiterated his desire to fight for the 2008 F1 world championship that he lost to Lewis Hamilton.
In an interview with The Athletic, Massa described the punishment Renault received as a result of ‘Crashgate’ as “bulls***”.
Renault were handed a suspended disqualification from F1, while the two protagonists behind what happened at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix – Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds – bans were either overturned, paving way for their returns to the sport.
Since then, Symonds has worked in F1 at Williams – ironically when Massa was a driver there, while Briatore is an ambassador for the sport.
“The punishment was no punishment,” Massa said. “Nobody paid for that.” For me, this is – sorry for the word – but it is bulls***.”
Explaining again why he’s pursuing legal action 15 years later: “This is what we are fighting for. This is [why] we get together a group of lawyers to fight because this is the correct thing to do.”
“We are pretty confident [in] the situation. We will fight them to the end because it was not correct. It was not fair for the sport, what happened.
“Everything came out in [a] very difficult moment, you know, for me, with knowing about what’s happened [during] that race in Singapore, then my accident. Everything was together, so it was definitely not easy,” Massa said.
“The most important thing I had in my mind was to get back to the car.”
Massa’s decision to take legal action stems from an interview former CEO Bernie Ecclestone gave earlier this year where he admitted he was aware of what happened in Singapore.
It’s not only the title Massa wants, with the Brazilian seeking “substantial bonuses” and potential “lucrative agreements” that are “likely to exceed tens of millions of Euros”.
“But then after 15 years, you hear that people knew [and] they didn’t want it to do anything not to destroy F1’s name because it was a very serious situation, like Crashgate. So then, it was a big shock,” he explained.
“They really understand that it was manipulation. They really understand that it was a race, it happened — a very serious situation like corruption, like manipulation — that is not the correct thing for the sport. I really hope they look back, and they fix what was not fair for the sport and for the people.”
Keyword: Felipe Massa continues to fight lost 2008 F1 title to Lewis Hamilton: ‘Renault penalty was bulls***’