The race for the 2008 World Drivers’ Championship title is not over yet. At least behind the scenes. The first hearings of the case involving the Brazilian against Formula One Management (FOM), the International Automobile Federation (FIA), and Bernie Ecclestone begin this Wednesday (29) and continue until Friday (31), in London.
There will be three days of presentations by the parties’ lawyers before Judge Robert Jay, who could make his decision as early as Friday on whether to continue or close the case or, most likely, take a few more weeks, even months, to rule on the matter.
Massa is suing in London’s High Court to obtain a declaration that he should have won the 2008 championship, which he lost by just one point, and is asking for around US$85.9 million, around R$461 million, plus interest.
The Brazilian claims the trophy in court due to the deliberate crash of Nelsinho Piquet, from Renault, which caused the safety car to enter on the 14th lap of the race and favored Fernando Alonso. The collision made the then Ferrari driver go to the pits to change his tires and ended with an incident with the fuel hose that made him finish 13th. The champion was Hamilton, who scored six points in that GP and won the World Cup with one difference.
Years after the death of Max Mosley, president of the FIA (Federation Internationale de Automobilsimo) from 1993 to 2009, Ecclestone reportedly told F1 Insider that he and the former director decided not to do anything after the allegations coming from the Piquet family itself, in 2009, to “protect the sport and save it from a scandal”.
The excerpt that motivated Massa to open the case, however, would come later: “According to the rules, we would probably have had to cancel the race in Singapore in these circumstances. For the purposes of the World Championship classification, it would never have happened. So, Massa would have been champion, not Hamilton.”
*With information from Estadão Conteúdo
Published by Nícolas Robert
