Massa reveals financial strain of legal fight for Hamilton's first F1 title

Felipe Massa is hopeful his fight for justice against F1, the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone will conclude soon given the extraordinary financial burden.

In March, Massa and his Brazilian legal team announced it had filed a lawsuit against the sport, motorsport's governing body, and former F1 supremo Ecclestone relating to Lewis Hamilton's first F1 title in 2008.

They cited the fact Massa should be declared the rightful winner of a championship he lost to Hamilton by a point in light of the 'crashgate' saga that tainted that year's Singapore Grand Prix.

Massa was leading that race when Nelson Piquet Jr deliberately crashed his car which triggered a sequence of events that saw then Renault team-mate Fernando Alonso go on to take the chequered flag. Ferrari driver Massa was involved in a botched pit stop that culminated in him finishing 15th.

Massa's case was triggered by comments made by Ecclestone last year claiming he, along with then-race director Charlie Whiting and then-FIA president Max Mosley knew during the 2008 season of Renault's race-fixing but opted to keep it quiet to protect F1 and FIA.

The Brazilian law firm representing Massa, Vieira Rezende Advogados, filed its lawsuit in London's High Court seeking declarations that "the FIA breached its regulations by failing to promptly investigate Nelson Piquet Junior’s crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, and that had it acted properly, Mr Massa would have won the drivers’ championship that year".

Damages are also being sought to compensate Massa for the fact he is not an F1 champion but should have been acknowledged as such for the past 16 years.

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Massa - I definitely paid

Speaking in an exclusive interview with RacingNews365, Massa confirmed the case has been ongoing for "four, five months".

"I hope the correct thing happens, for justice, for something that was not part of the sport that punished me big time," said Massa.

"This is what we are fighting for, which I believe is correct, especially after 16 years and on hearing things which you never thought it was really like that.

"After that, I decided to put a big team together, professional people, divided by many different countries. They really believe it was not fair what happened, for the sport, and I definitely paid.

"When we heard Bernie's comment last year, after that we started to put things together, and we started to fight, to analyse things In the professional, legal way because it was not part of the sport."

Massa "cannot say when" the case will end as the wheels of justice turn slowly, but he is naturally hoping for the right outcome.

"I never thought I was going to be part of such a thing in my life," he said. "It's not easy. It's also very expensive, a lot of money, so I really hope things finish soon.

"But we've been waiting so long now for justice, we have to hope the truth comes out and there will be justice."