{"id":297269,"date":"2025-11-20T15:09:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T15:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/297269\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T15:09:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T15:09:10","slug":"massas-f1-2008-lawsuit-will-proceed-to-trial-judge-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/297269\/","title":{"rendered":"Massa\u2019s F1 2008 lawsuit will proceed to trial, judge rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

Felipe Massa<\/a> has secured a first victory as he seeks damages for the results of the 2008 Formula 1 world championship over Renault\u2019s race-fixing at the Singapore Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

Massa has been making a case that Nelson Piquet Jr<\/a>\u2019s intentional crash, which gifted victory to team-mate Fernando Alonso<\/a> by causing an early safety car, changed the course of the title race as Ferrari<\/a>\u2019s title contender dropped down the order in a consequent pitstop and eventually lost the championship to Lewis Hamilton<\/a> by one point.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

The conspiracy didn\u2019t emerge until 2009, meaning the previous season\u2019s classification was set in stone.<\/p>\n

However, Massa has sued Formula One Management, its former boss Bernie Ecclestone, and the FIA, seeking \u00a364million ($84million) in damages for loss of earnings and sponsorship; the Brazilian has accused them of deliberately and jointly concealing the race-fixing.<\/p>\n

Both sides presented their arguments in October at London\u2019s High Court, and on Thursday, Justice Robert Jay rejected the defendants\u2019 attempt to get Massa\u2019s lawsuit dismissed.<\/p>\n

The defendants claimed that a potential breach of contract was irrelevant to Massa after the latter argued the FIA had a duty to investigate potential wrongdoing; Justice Jay sided with the defendants, explaining the duty was owed to FIA members, not Massa.<\/p>\n

The defendants claimed that Massa\u2019s losses were his own failure given he did not take action following the FIA\u2019s investigation in September 2009; Justice Jay rejected that claim, as Ecclestone\u2019s 2023 interview in which he stated he and then FIA president Max Mosley kept the conspiracy quiet brought essential facts to Massa\u2019s knowledge. However, several claims by Massa are time-barred and\/or governed by French law.<\/p>\n

The case will now proceed to trial, with Justice Jay estimating that Massa has a \u2018real prospect of success\u2019 on the inducement of breach and conspiracy claims, \u2018because they do not require Mr Massa to have a directly enforceable contractual right\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"Felipe <\/p>\n

Felipe Massa and his brother Eduardo<\/p>\n

Photo by: Mark Sutton \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n

The judge, however, cautioned that establishing enough evidence to win the trial would be a tall order for Massa, though Autosport\u00a0understands Massa\u2019s lawyers may now demand additional documents to support their client\u2019s claims, including emails and texts from the defendants.<\/p>\n

The judge also pointed out that while the court can award damages to Massa, it cannot overturn the results of the 2008 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an extraordinary victory \u2013 an important day for me, for justice, and for everyone passionate about Formula 1,\u201d Massa said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Court acknowledged the strength of our case and did not allow the defendants to smother the truth about 2008. The deliberate crash cost me a world title, and the authorities at the time chose to cover up the facts instead of defending the integrity of the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did everything they could to stop the lawsuit, but our fight is for justice, and today we took a decisive step. The truth will prevail at trial. We will investigate everything thoroughly. Every document, every communication, every piece of evidence revealing the conspiracy among the defendants will be presented.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am more determined and confident than ever! When the whole truth comes to light, justice will be served \u2013 for me, for Brazilians, for the tifosi, for all motorsport fans who deserve an honest sport, and for the very future of F1.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional reporting by Erick Gabriel<\/p>\n

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– The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Felipe Massa has secured a first victory as he seeks damages for the results of the 2008 Formula…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,848,813,816,170280,165239,170279,85,165240],"class_list":["post-297269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-felipe-massa","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-judge-rules","tag-las-vegas-gp","tag-massau2019s-f1-2008-lawsuit-will-proceed-to-trial","tag-sports","tag-streets-of-las-vegas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297269","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=297269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}