Felipe Massa is engaging in a “misguided attempt to re-open the results of the 2008 F1 drivers’ championship”, according to lawyers for Bernie Ecclestone as the high-profile court case got underway in London.
In Court 73 at the Royal Courts of Justice, application hearings in front of Mr Justice Jay began with Massa in attendance, with the three-day hearing not officially a trial, with no witnesses being called.
Instead, the KCs for the three defendants, Formula One Management (FOM), Ecclestone, and the FIA are explaining to Mr Justice Jay why the case should not reach trial, whilst Massa’s KC will argue why it should.
On Wednesday, David Quest KC, for Ecclestone, and John Mehrzad KC, for the FIA, spoke.
Massa is seeking £60 million in damages and a public announcement that he is the “rightful” 2008 world champion, and not Lewis Hamilton.
It should be stressed, however, that Massa is not seeking to overturn the results of the championship, and in any doubt, it is agreed by both sides that such an outcome is outside the power of the court.
In written evidence, submitted in the form of a skeleton argument on Ecclestone’s defence, Quest claims that “but for the FIA’s handling of the crash”, he would be champion, and dismisses the Brazilian as “these declarations treat the Court as a sports ‘debating club’, asking it to embark upon a counterfactual exercise concerning the refereeing of a sporting event which took place nearly 17 years ago.”
Quest added that Hamilton would be “deprived of his 2008 title” even though he is not party to the proceedings and was “equally exposed” to Nelson Piquet’s deliberate crash in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, and did not “make the same driving mistakes” as Massa – who drove off from a pit-stop with the fuel rig still attached to his Ferrari, and tumbled down the order.
Massa is also accused by Quest of “seeking these declarations for publicity reasons.”
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What is the case about?
The case has been brought after a 2023 interview from Ecclestone in which he claimed that he and then-FIA president Max Mosley became aware of 'crashgate' during the 2008 season, with a meeting between Nelson Piquet Sr and Charlie Whiting at the 2008 Brazilian GP key.
It is alleged that after Piquet Sr told Whiting, his former chief Brabham mechanic, that the crash was deliberate, Mosley and Ecclestone elected to cover it up to protect F1 from a scandal. The case became known public the year after when Piquet Jr was sacked by Renault.
In his submission, Quest points to evidence from Mosley, who died in 2021, that he was indeed aware during 2008 of what had happened, but as Piquet Jr still had a seat, was not willing to go on the record, and as such, “without evidence”, the case could not continue at that time.
These pieces of evidence include extracts from Mosley's autobiography and one from a 2011 Ecclestone biography.
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F1 and FIA join with stinging criticism
Writing to defend Formula One Management in the proceedings, Annelise Day KC was blunt about the chances of the case succeeding.
“These applications are made because this is a claim which will fail,” she wrote.
“In light of this, it is not in anyone’s interests, least of all Mr Massa’s, for there to be further prolongation of his disappointment at losing the 2008 F1 drivers’ championship by just one point to Mr Hamilton (and indeed at never becoming world champion).
“This litigation will not result in Mr Massa getting the prize he wants, and the only “winners” out of a further 12 to 18 months of litigation will be the lawyers.”
For the FIA, John Mehrzad KC wrote that “Mr Massa’s claim is as torturous as it is overly ambitious” and that it “conspicuously overlooks a catalogue of his own errors, or that of his team, Ferrari, during the Singapore GP and all other GPs which contributed to his overall second place finish in the drivers’ championship that season.”
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