Bernie Ecclestone has dismissed Felipe Massa’s legal case over the 2008 Crashgate scandal, with the former F1 supremo insisting: “There is no way in the world anyone could change or cancel that race.”
Ex-F1 driver Massa is seeking £60m in damages from F1, the FIA and Ecclestone over an alleged cover-up of the scandal at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, when Nelson Piquet Jnr crashed deliberately under instruction from his Renault team.
The subsequent impact of the crash, Massa argues, cost him the 2008 F1 world championship, which Lewis Hamilton claimed on the final lap of the final race in Brazil, with Ferrari star Massa missing out by one point.
Having filed suit in London’s High Court last March, an initial court date has now been set for 28 October. The Brazilian will be represented by Nick de Marco KC. Yet Ecclestone, who was the F1 boss at the time, has disregarded Massa’s claim out of hand.
“There is no way in the world anyone could change or cancel that race,” Ecclestone, 94, told The Times this week. “There is always something going on where someone would like to cancel it if they could.
“To try to persuade the president of the FIA to call a special meeting where the FIA would have to cancel the race — there were no provisions for that to happen.
“Max [Mosley, former FIA president] knew there was not enough evidence at the time to do anything. It only started later when young Nelson decided he wanted to say something when he found out he was not going to get a seat for the following year.
“Max was not saying we should cover this up but just that it was not good for the image of Formula 1.”
New comments in 2023, by Ecclestone, about the scandal in Singapore are what triggered Maasa to take legal action, with the Brazilian’s lawyers alleging their client was the “victim of a conspiracy.”
‘Crashgate’ rocked Formula 1 when the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix in 2008 saw Renault’s Fernando Alonso win the race before it emerged that his teammate, Piquet Jr, had deliberately crashed to bring out a safety car that played into Alonso’s hands.
That safety car prompted a Massa pit stop that Ferrari mishandled, with Massa eventually finishing the race 13th while Hamilton came home third – a difference of six points, a swing which ultimately impacted the title result.
While Renault and team boss Flavio Briatore were punished in 2009, the result of the race stood despite Massa’s protestations, with the FIA’s statutes making clear that overturning the classification from each season is impossible once the FIA Awards Ceremony for that year is complete, a rule set in the FIA International Sporting Code.
Ecclestone told F1-Insider in 2023 that both he and then-FIA president Max Mosley knew of the ‘Crashgate’ scandal in 2008, but refused to publicise the chain of events to avoid the sport a “huge scandal”.
In full, Ecclestone’s comments read: “We wanted to protect the sport and save it from a huge scandal. That’s why I used angelic tongues to persuade my former driver Nelson Piquet to keep calm for the time being.
“Back then, there was a rule that a world championship classification after the FIA awards ceremony at the end of the year was untouchable. So Hamilton was presented with the trophy and everything was fine.
“We had enough information in time to investigate the matter. According to the statutes, we should have cancelled the race in Singapore under these conditions.
“That means it would never have happened for the championship standings. And then Felipe Massa would have become world champion and not Lewis Hamilton.”
Ecclestone has since said he does not remember the interview, adding: “This was an interview I gave to someone in Germany and the guy at the time, his English wasn’t that good and he was taking notes, and it was picked up by someone in England.
“The lawyers for myself, the FIA and F1 do not understand how it can be heard in a court.”
However, Massa has previously stated his eagerness for the “truth to come out” and maintained his willingness for “justice” to emerge.
He told The Times: “Accountability is key to preventing future fraud. Those entrusted with protecting the sport directly violated their duties, and they cannot be allowed to benefit from concealing their own misconduct.
“Such conduct is unacceptable in any sphere of life, especially in a sport followed by millions, including children. We will pursue this to the very end in order to achieve a just and fair outcome — for myself, for motorsport in Brazil, and for the sport as a whole.”
In 2023, Hamilton said of the matter: “I’ve got a really bad memory. I’m really just focused on the here and now... I’m not focused on what happened 15 years ago.”
Despite the legal action, Massa does not seem able to officially overturn the result – with the FIA’s own International Sporting Code stating protests and reviews expire 14 days after a competition and four days prior to that year’s prize-giving ceremony.
Massa’s best-finish in F1 turned out to be that 2008 season as he retired in 2017 while Hamilton went on to win six more titles with Mercedes, holding the joint-record of seven F1 World Championships with Michael Schumacher. Hamilton, now 40, joined Ferrari earlier this year.
Max Verstappen is back in F1 title race – here’s why McLaren should be worried
Lewis Hamilton downbeat after another tough race for Ferrari: ‘We were slow’
Lewis Hamilton says prospect of 2025 F1 win for Ferrari is ‘far-fetched’
Lewis Hamilton pulls out of F1 tyre testing to be by the side of his ill dog Roscoe
Mick Schumacher announces IndyCar venture after missing out on Cadillac F1 seat
Max Verstappen to make GT3 race debut at Nurburgring in a Ferrari
