The noose tightens around Lewis Hamilton's first title as former adversary looks to press ahead with legal charges

Lewis Hamilton's former adversary, Felipe Massa, is going ahead with legal charges against the outcome of the 2008 F1 championship. The 2008 F1 championship was marred by the infamous crashgate in the Singapore GP. The race in Singapore saw a fixed turn of events as Renault driver Nelson Piquet Jr. premeditatedly crashed into a wall.

The result and the chain of events of the race ultimately impacted the final championship result in Lewis Hamilton's favor.

However, with Bernie Ecclestone's recent comments around the incident, Felipe Massa has decided to take legal discourse when it comes to deciding the 2008 F1 championship (for more details of Bernie's comments, click here).

Talking to the Brazilian publication Esportelândia, Massa said:

“[I decided to try to take it back] after that Bernie Ecclestone interview. At the time, there was a law that said that when you went from one year to the next and gave the award to the driver and the team, the result couldn’t be changed. And Bernie Ecclestone said that he, the FIA president, in 2008, everybody knew about it and didn’t want to do anything so as not to scratch the name of Formula 1."

Stressing on the fact that a race result was manipulated and advantaged Lewis Hamilton as a result, Massa said:

“So it shows that I was totally wronged by what happened that year in a stolen race. This made me raise the antennae and go after justice. I’m not a lawyer, but everybody knows I was clearly wronged and I think justice is part of our fight to get what happened in the right way. That was a stolen race. It was a manipulation, which is a very serious thing. It wasn’t just an engine that broke. There was also an engine that broke, but that is part of the game.”

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"In other sports, results were corrected": Lewis Hamilton's adversary

Taking the example of other sports, Felipe Massa said that there's a precedent for this where a result has been changed on the basis of new findings within the sport. The same should apply to F1 as well.

He said:

“[If you say about] a race manipulated for the result, like in this case that happened to me, no. What you had were other things. Like in 2007, when McLaren took the design from Ferrari, copied the car and they were disqualified from the championship, they were punished for a situation. In this case [2008], there was no punishment. In football and other sports many things happened where results were corrected.”

Lewis Hamilton won the title against Felipe Massa in 2008 by just one point. It will be very interesting to see if something like a reversal of the title happens, because that could set a dangerous precedent in the sport.