long-standing claim<\/a> that he was unfairly denied the 2008 title due to the infamous \u201cCrashgate\u201d scandal at the Singapore Grand Prix.<\/p>\nThe Brazilian is seeking recognition as the rightful champion, alongside approximately \u00a364 million ($128 million AUD) in damages and interest, from the FIA, Formula One Management (FOM), and former F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone.<\/p>\n
Massa\u2019s lawsuit alleges that both Ecclestone and then-FIA president Max Mosley were aware of Renault\u2019s deliberate crash during the 2008 Singapore race \u2014 in which Nelson Piquet Jr intentionally hit the wall to help teammate Fernando Alonso \u2014 but chose not to act to protect the sport\u2019s reputation. Ecclestone later suggested his 2023 comments on the issue were mistranslated.<\/p>\n
During that race, Massa had been leading before a chaotic pit stop under the safety car saw Ferrari mistakenly release him with the fuel hose still attached.<\/p>\n
He finished 13th and failed to score, while championship rival Lewis Hamilton went on to win the title by a single point at the season finale in Brazil by famously passing Timo Glock on the last lap.<\/p>\n
The FIA\u2019s legal representatives dismissed Massa\u2019s case as lacking substance and jurisdictional basis, arguing that his defeat stemmed from his own and Ferrari\u2019s mistakes rather than a broader conspiracy.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr Massa\u2019s claim is as torturous as it is overly ambitious,\u201d a statement from the FIA defence read.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe multi-millionaire Brazil national and resident brings a claim in this jurisdiction of England and Wales founded on an alleged breach of the supranational rulebook of the FIA, a private international sporting organisation domiciled in France, concerning events at and around the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix over 17 years ago, on 28 September 2008.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr Massa\u2019s claim conspicuously overlooks a catalogue of his own errors or those of his team, Ferrari, during the Singapore GP and at other GPs which contributed to his overall second place finish in the drivers\u2019 championship that season.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/XPB_273646_HiRes.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Felipe Massa during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. Image: XPB Images<\/p>\n
The defence also took aim at what it called contradictions in Massa\u2019s argument, pointing to the Brazilian\u2019s statements that the case \u201cis not about money\u201d despite his substantial damages claim.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy way of relief Mr Massa seeks currently \u00a364,000,000 in damages, but his legal representative has publicly declared that the purpose of his claim is \u2018not financial\u2019,\u201d the FIA said in its filing.<\/p>\n
Massa, however, has maintained that his pursuit is about justice and recognition rather than compensation.<\/p>\n
He argues that if the FIA had acted on information allegedly known at the time, the results of the Singapore race would have been cancelled or adjusted \u2014 a change that would have handed him the world championship.<\/p>\n
Bernie Ecclestone\u2019s defence team also sought to downplay the impact of Renault\u2019s actions, instead highlighting Massa\u2019s own costly errors in Singapore.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the Singapore Grand Prix, Mr Massa performed very poorly in that race,\u201d Ecclestone\u2019s lawyer, David Quest KC said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe finished in 13th place and scored zero points and that was largely due to errors he made during the pit stop, running over a member of his pit crew and then leaving the pits with the fuel hose still attached.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe race was also notable for what happened on lap 14, due to Mr Piquet crashing heavily at Turn 14, causing the safety car.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat crash by Piquet was a deliberate ploy by Renault. Fernando Alonso had already pitted, and took advantage to win the race<\/p>\n
\u201cMassa\u2019s poor form, nor Hamilton\u2019s strong form, weren\u2019t related to the crash.\u201d<\/p>\n
The case began earlier this week before Mr Justice Robert Jay, who will determine whether Massa\u2019s claim has sufficient grounds to proceed to a full trial.<\/p>\n
If the court sides with the FIA, FOM, and Ecclestone, the case could be dismissed outright.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The FIA’s defence team has spoken harshly against Felipe Massa. Image: XPB Images The case, held at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":249964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,2061,111963,817,848,837,813,816,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-249963","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-bernie-ecclestone","11":"tag-crashgate","12":"tag-f1","13":"tag-felipe-massa","14":"tag-fia","15":"tag-formula-1","16":"tag-formula1","17":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"FIA](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/XPB_1193940_HiRes.jpg\")