Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 F1 title still under threat as Felipe Massa bemoans ‘injustice’

Hamilton won his first Formula 1 world championship in dramatic circumstances in 2008 but new remarks about that year’s infamous ‘Crashgate’ scandal have reignited calls for the title to be investigated

Felipe Massa has reiterated calls for Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 F1 title triumph to be investigated after new remarks surfaced from Bernie Ecclestone.

Brazilian driver Massa, then racing for Ferrari, missed out on that year’s title by a single point in dramatic circumstances at the final race in Brazil as Hamilton – then driving for McLaren - claimed the point he needed on the final lap in wet conditions.

Yet new comments, by former F1 supremo Ecclestone, about that year’s infamous ‘Crashgate’ scandal in Singapore has encouraged Massa to assess all his potential options as to whether the Championship result could be overturned.

Speaking about Ecclestone’s comments for the first time on camera, 42-year-old Massa labelled Hamilton’s first F1 title win an ‘injustice’ and ‘not fair’.

“You fight them to the last corner of the last race, pass the chequered flag as the champion and then everything changed,” he told Sky Sports in Miami. “For sure, a fight on the track.

“Then you discover what has happened in Singapore. People, important people like Bernie [Ecclestone], like Max Mosley, like Charlie Whiting - they knew in 2008 and they didn’t do anything.

“That is really a massive surprise for me. It’s really [an] injustice and I think definitely we need to study everything that happened because it’s not fair what has happened.”

Ecclestone revealed in March that both he and then-FIA president Max Mosley knew of the Crashgate scandal in 2008, but refused to publicise the chain of events to avoid the sport a “huge scandal.”

WHAT WAS CRASHGATE?

• Crashgate rocked the sport when the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix in 2008 saw Renault’s Fernando Alonso win the race before it emerged that his team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr. had deliberately crashed to bring out a safety car which played into Alonso’s hands.
• That safety car prompted a Massa pit stop that Ferrari mishandled, with Massa eventually finishing the race 13^th while Hamilton came home third – a difference of six points, a swing which ultimately impacted the title result.
• While Renault and team boss Flavio Briatore were punished in 2009, the result of the race stood despite Massa’s protestations, with the FIA’s statues making clear that overturning the classification from each season is impossible once the FIA Awards Ceremony for that year is complete, a rule set in the FIA International Sporting Code.

“We decided not to do anything for now,” Ecclestone told F1-Insider. “We wanted to protect the sport and save it from a huge scandal. That’s why I used angelic tongues to persuade my former driver Nelson Piquet to keep calm for the time being.

“Back then, there was a rule that a world championship classification after the FIA ​​awards ceremony at the end of the year was untouchable. So Hamilton was presented with the trophy and everything was fine.

“We had enough information in time to investigate the matter. According to the statutes, we should have cancelled the race in Singapore under these conditions.

“That means it would never have happened for the championship standings. And then Felipe Massa would have become world champion and not Lewis Hamilton.”

Lewis Hamilton won the 2008 F1 world title in dramatic circumstances in Brazil (Getty Images)

Upon hearing this new information come to light, Massa told Motorsport.com last month that he will look into his – albeit slim – legal options, noting the example of Lance Armstrong’s doping revelations and the stripping of his Tour de France victories.

“There is a rule that says that when a championship is decided, from the moment the driver receives the champion’s trophy, things can no longer be changed, even if it has been proven a theft,” Massa, who ultimately did not win an F1 world title, said.

“At the time, Ferrari’s lawyers told me about this rule. We went to other lawyers and the answer was that nothing could be done. So I logically believed in this situation.

“But after 15 years, we hear that the [former] owner of the category says that he found out in 2008, together with the president of the FIA, and they did nothing [so as] to not tarnish the name of F1.

Felipe Massa insists new comments surfaced about ‘Crashgate’ make Hamilton’s win an ‘injustice’ (Getty Images)

“This is very sad, to know the result of this race was supposed to be cancelled and I would have a title. In the end, I was the one who lost the most with this result. So, we are going after it to understand all this.

“We have already seen other situations happening in sports, such as Lance Armstrong, who was proven to have doped, and he lost all the titles. What is the difference?”

Despite Massa’s comments, his options appear slim, with the FIA’s own International Sporting Code stating protests and reviews expire 14 days after a competition and four days prior to that year’s prize giving ceremony.

He also cannot use the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which has no jurisdiction over the FIA on issues like this, with the independent International Court of Appeal the highest authority in the sport.

CAS may only be involved in F1 matters relating to the FIA’s Anti-Doping Disciplinary Committee.

Massa’s best-finish in F1 turned out to be that 2008 season as he retired in 2017 while Hamilton has gone on to win six more titles with Mercedes, holding the joint-record of seven F1 World Championships with Michael Schumacher.