LONDON \u2014 Felipe Massa’s $83 million claim against Formula 1, its governing body the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone can go to trial, a High Court judge ruled on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Lewis Hamilton\u2019s first F1 world championship in 2008 is the subject of legal action, with Brazilian driver Massa saying he is the rightful winner of the title.<\/p>\n
Massa lost by a single point after Nelson Piquet Jr. supposedly deliberately crashed at the Singapore Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
Ecclestone, who was the boss of F1 for four decades before he was deposed in 2017, suggested in 2023 that series executives were aware of the cover-up before the 2008 campaign concluded.<\/p>\n
Ecclestone, the FIA and Formula One Management are defending the claims.<\/p>\n
Last month, they asked the court in London to throw out the case, saying Massa performed poorly in the 2008 Singapore GP, ultimately leading to him losing the championship, and arguing that the claim was brought too late.<\/p>\n
In a written judgment issued ahead of this week’s Las Vegas GP, Justice Robert Jay said the case could go ahead.<\/p>\n
He said Massa had \u201cno real prospect of establishing that the FIA\u2019s duties were owed to him\u201d but that \u201che does have a real prospect of proving at trial all the components of his unlawful means conspiracy.”<\/p>\n
\u201cThe same analysis applies to the inducement claim.”<\/p>\n
In the ruling, the judge dismissed part of Massa\u2019s claim, saying he \u201creached the firm conclusion that it is clear that declaratory relief would not be granted in this case.”<\/p>\n
At a hearing in October, the court heard that as part of his claim Massa was also seeking various declarations regarding the FIA’s conduct.<\/p>\n
Justice Jay said, \u201cIn my judgment, Mr. Massa is not entitled to claim declaratory relief for reputational or publicity reasons. The present claim cannot of course rewrite the outcome of the 2008 drivers’ world championship, but if declaratory relief along the lines sought were granted that is how Mr. Massa would present his victory to the world and it is also how it would be perceived by the public.<\/p>\n
“The second declaration is in the terms that were it not for the FIA’s breaches of duty, Mr. Massa would have won the championship: in other words, that he should have won the championship.<\/p>\n
“The FIA, as an international sporting body outside the reach of this Court, could and would simply ignore any such declaration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat underscores its lack of practical utility, but the declaration comes too close in my view to impinging on the right of the FIA to govern its own affairs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Race crash supposedly deliberate<\/p>\n
At the 2008 Singapore GP, Renault staged a win for Fernando Alonso by ordering Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash, which brought out a safety car and meant Massa, who was leading the race for Ferrari, finished in 13th after his strategy was compromised.<\/p>\n
The following season, Piquet revealed he was under instruction by his bosses to crash deliberately.<\/p>\n
Massa\u2019s lawyers claim Ecclestone knew the crash was deliberate and he and the FIA failed to investigate it.<\/p>\n
At the October hearing, Nick De Marco KC, for Massa, said in written submissions that the defendants could not \u201cestablish that Mr. Massa\u2019s claims have no real prospect of success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adding Massa had \u201ca real prospect of succeeding on all of the grounds,\u201d he said the matter should go to a full trial.<\/p>\n
David Quest KC, for Ecclestone, said Massa’s claims were \u201ca misguided attempt to reopen the results of the 2008 F1 drivers’ championship.”<\/p>\n
John Mehrzad KC, for the FIA, said Massa’s claim is \u201ctorturous as it is overly ambitious” and \u201cconspicuously overlooks a catalogue of his own errors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anneliese Day KC, for Formula One Management, said in written submissions that the claim would “fail.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2014 Felipe Massa’s $83 million claim against Formula 1, its governing body the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-295706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}