Felipe Massa, a former Ferrari driver, is suing Bernie Ecclestone, Formula 1, and the FIA for at least $82 million (£64.1 million) in damages.
As part of his increased efforts to win back the 2008 world championship title, which he lost to Sir Lewis Hamilton by a just one point, the complaint was submitted to the UK’s High Court on Monday.
The Brazilian declared he would file a lawsuit last year after former Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone claimed Massa was the true winner of the 2008 championship.
The controversy stems from the Singapore Grand Prix of that year, when teammate Fernando Alonso was tactically assisted by Renault ordering Nelson Piquet Jr. to intentionally crash, bringing out the safety car.
The incident also ruined Massa’s race and he finished 13th and out of the points, while Hamilton came home third.
When the ‘Crashgate’ incident surfaced a year later, Renault was penalized, but the repercussions were irreversible because of the amount of time that had elapsed.
Ecclestone, however, asserted in a 2023 interview that he and the FIA president at the time, Max Mosley, were aware of “Crashgate,” but they chose to do nothing to “protect the sport from a huge scandal.”
He said that if they had spoken up, the race’s results would have been overturned, making Massa the winner and preventing Hamilton from winning the first of his incredible seven Formula One championships.
Since then, Ecclestone, now ninety-three, has claimed that he cannot even recall doing the aforementioned interview.
His comments left Massa furious and the 11-time race winner has now followed through with his plans to sue, saying in a statement on Monday: ‘I always said I was going to fight until the end.
Since the FIA [motorsport’s governing body] and FOM [Formula One Management] decided not to do anything, we will seek to right this historical injustice in court.
‘The matter is now for our lawyers and they are fully authorised to do whatever is necessary so justice in sport is served.’
But despite being named in the lawsuit, Ecclestone says that Massa is doing the right thing, telling Press Association: ‘If he had asked me, I would have said it was the complete right thing to do, to sue, and to let an English judge decide what is right and wrong.
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