F1 Supremo backtracks on his 2008 championship comments after Felipe Massa’s team begins legal proceedings 

Former F1 executive Bernie Ecclestone backed off about admitting that he was aware of the deliberate actions that took place during the 2008 Singapore GP, which was later called 'Crashgate.'

In an earlier interview, Ecclestone mentioned that he was aware that the Crashgate scandal involving Nelson Piquet and Fernando Alonso was deliberate.

However, now that Felipe Massa has started looking for legal ways to challenge the race's outcome, he has turned and stated that he does not remember the interview.

"I don't remember any of this, to be honest. I don't remember giving the interview, for sure."

The 2008 F1 Grand Prix saw Fernando Alonso start from P15, and his teammate Nelson Piquet started right behind him.

Soon into the race, Alonso pitted early for a tire change, and soon after, Nelson Piquet crashed. This gave the former the lead in the race because other drivers pitted and ultimately won the Grand Prix.

Felipe Massa, who was on the pole for the race, had a mishap during one of the pit stops when his fuel hose wasn't detached when he left the pit. This saw him finish P13, well out of the points.

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton, his contender for the world championship, finished P3 with six points. Massa would then go on to lose the world championship in the final race of the season by a single point to Hamilton.

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Could Felipe Massa claim his long-lost F1 title from 2008?

Ferrari won their latest world championship with Kimi Raikkonen in the 2007 season, and although they were very close to winning in 2008, Massa lost out to Lewis Hamilton by just a single point.

As a matter of fact, when Massa won the final race in Brazil, he was the world champion for a few seconds until Hamilton overtook him for P5 and had just a single point over the Ferrari driver to claim his first world championship.

Years later, Massa has begun a legal dispute with F1 and the FIA over the result of the 2008 Singapore GP.

It was proven that Renault purposefully crashed Nelson Piquet during the race to help Alonso win the race. Since he won it in rather an unsettling way, Massa feels that the result for that race should have been nullified.

This would mean that Hamilton would lose out on the six points he gained during the race, and the Brazilian would be crowned the 2008 world champion, fifteen years later.