The strength of Felipe Massa\u2019s case against F1, Bernie Ecclestone, and the FIA was tested on the final day of a pre-trial hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice.<\/p>\n
The third and final day of evidence in the pre-trial event began with Massa\u2019s legal team of Nick de Marco KC and Khendra Potts finishing their response to the initial wave of evidence from the KCs representing the three defendants, with Massa once again in Court 73 to witness proceedings.<\/p>\n
After lunch, David Quest KC (for Ecclestone), John Merzhad KC (for the FIA), and Anneliese \u00a0Day KC for FOM responded to the claims of Massa\u2019s legal team, with Merzhad describing the hearing as an \u201cabject waste of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
He alleged that Massa\u2019s central case was the possibility of a \u201cconspiracy\u201d centred around Ecclestone and Max Mosley deciding to keep quiet after learning Nelson Piquet Jr had crashed deliberately in the 2008 Singapore GP during\u00a0the 2008 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Marzhad claimed that Massa\u2019s other claims of a breach of contract and breach of duty from the FIA were simply being used to \u201cpad out\u201d an otherwise thin case.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Massa\u2019s case is built around an interview Ecclestone gave to F1 Insider\u00a0in March 2023, in which he claimed he was aware during the 2008 Brazilian GP that Piquet had crashed on purpose, and with Mosley, decided to cover it up.<\/p>\n
The Brazilian\u2019s legal team argues that the statute of limitations on the case, therefore does not begin with the World Motor Sport Council\u2019s verdict into crashgate in September 2009, but rather starts anew from March 2023 after Ecclestone\u2019s interview.<\/p>\n
However, Day, representing F1 rubbished this point.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She claimed that Massa not being able to \u201cpiece it together\u201d during 2009 “did not matter” and that, given the well-known links between Mosley, Ecclestone and Charlie Whiting, the FIA official to whom Piquet Sr had disclosed the deliberate nature of the accident, it should have been obvious that Ecclestone was aware in 2008, and not during 2009.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMassa knew it, he knew it all the time\u201d, Day told Mr Justice Jay towards the end of the proceedings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea that Massa didn\u2019t know simply doesn\u2019t fly, and we don\u2019t need a trial for that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Day also picked up on Massa not seeking independent legal advice in the autumn of 2009 after the WMSC decision, and being told by Ferrari that there was \u201cnothing he could do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone with proper due diligence would have sought their own legal advice,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Proceedings than wrapped up, with Mr Justice Jay indicating that his decision on a verdict over a full-scale trial would be \u201cfairly soon\u201d, notwithstanding his other commitments.<\/p>\n
He also stressed the importance of not leaking his draft statement to the court.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The strength of Felipe Massa\u2019s case against F1, Bernie Ecclestone, and the FIA was tested on the final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":["post-254144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsport","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254144","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=254144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}