Felipe Massa on why his legal case for Lewis Hamilton's 2008 F1 title won't set precedence for other contentious title deciders

Felipe Massa feels his legal case against Lewis Hamilton's 2008 F1 title will not set a precedent for other contentious title deciders of the past. The driver has initiated legal proceedings and challenged the official result of the 2008 F1 season.

While there are many who have raised question marks over the case being opened 15 years since the championship, there are a few who feel the championship being overturned opens a can of worms. Throughout the history of F1, there have been far too many cases where Championships have had contentious endings.

These include the title battle between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen in 2021, the 1995 title battle between Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher, and the two title battles between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in 1989 and 1990. Felipe Massa however does not feel that those are similar to his case because in his case the manipulations already proven. Talking to PlanetF1, he said:

“I think that is a very important question because people need to understand that my case is manipulated. In my case, it was already investigated that that race was manipulated. Other cases are maybe arbitral or maybe sporting. If you’re talking about if I win the case, Damon Hill will win a case, Ayrton Senna will win a case from fighting with Alain Prost, Lewis 2021… But that is a different case."

He added:

"They are maybe arbitral, maybe sporting – one pushed the other out of the race if we’re talking about Senna and Prost, also Damon Hill. So this is different. This is something that, unfortunately, happens in sport, it happens in football, it happens in many different sports, but manipulation… no. This is different."

Felipe Massa says his legal proceedings for Lewis Hamilton's title are different

Felipe Massa reiterated that even though he's not taking sides or saying what happened between Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna was fair, he feels that his case and legal proceedings are different from theirs. He said:

“So my case is different than all of the others. I’m not saying that I believe what’s happened with Senna and Prost was fair, no, I’m not saying that. I’m just saying that my case is different than all of the others.”

It's hard to grasp the magnitude of what would happen if Lewis Hamilton is stripped of the 2008 F1 title and it is given to Felipe Massa. It will however be interesting to see how this unravels.