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F1 scandal which led to Lewis Hamilton winning the 2008 world championship is in the spotlight

Ferrari's Felipe Massa and McLaren-Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton in 2008. (AP: Oliver Multhaup, file)

There is a 15-year-old scandal in Formula 1 that still hangs over the sport like a rain cloud.

When the son of an F1 legend deliberately crashed his car during the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix in 2008, its objective was to allow Fernando Alonso to win a race.

However, the consequences of the scandal known as Crashgate went much further and affected the careers of two great drivers who had nothing to do with the incident.

Now, former Ferrari driver Felipe Massa has said he wants to see if there are legal grounds for him to be awarded the 2008 F1 drivers' world championship, which was won by a fresh-faced Lewis Hamilton.

What happened in the 2008 F1 title fight?

Massa and Hamilton locked horns in one of the great championship fights.

The Ferrari and McLaren drivers went toe-to-toe throughout the season, which went down to the final race in Brazil.

In front of his fellow countrymen, Massa needed to win the race and have Hamilton finish sixth or lower to be crowned champion.

Massa did win the race, and for the briefest moment he and Ferrari believed they had won the title.

But on the final lap Hamilton overtook Timo Glock for fifth place, winning his first championship by one point.

So what happened in Singapore months earlier?

F1 held its first race in the city-state in 2008 and it is remembered for all the wrong reasons.

Hamilton led Massa by one point in the championship, but the Brazilian was on pole position and leading the race.

But then Nelson Piquet Jr, son of F1 champion Nelson Piquet, driving for Renault crashed into the wall.

The result of that crash brought out a safety car and allowed teammate Fernando Alonso to take the lead of the race and ultimately win.

The Ferrari pit crew fails to get the fuel hose off Felipe Massa's car as he speeds away after a pit stop during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. (AP: Oliver Multhaup, file)

Meanwhile, Massa and Ferrari had to rush to make an unexpected pit stop and it all went wrong.

The botched stop sent Massa from the lead down to 13th while Hamilton finished third, extending his championship lead to seven points.

This points-swing ultimately led Hamilton to win the title in dramatic circumstances at the end of the year, costing Massa his one shot at the crown. But, it was not the last we would hear of this race.

Why was the Piquet Jr crash controversial?

The crash was deliberate.

Speculation was rife about how Piquet Jr went into the wall, which ultimately allowed his teammate to win the race.

It was eventually revealed in 2009 that Piquet Jr was instructed by his team to do it, in order to help Alonso. 

An investigation found Alonso had no knowledge of the plan for Piquet Jr to crash.

Renault Formula 1 drivers Fernando Alonso (left) and Nelson Piquet Jr (right) along with team boss Flavio Briatore (centre), were the focus of a major scandal. (Reuters: Jose Manuel Ribeiro, file)

Renault was threatened with a disqualification from F1.

Team boss Flavio Briatore was effectively banned from the sport indefinitely, while technical chief Pat Symonds was suspended from F1 for five years.

At the time, Massa called for the race to be scrubbed from the record books, which would remove Hamilton's third place and hand the Brazilian the championship.

But the rules of the sport stated that once the championship trophy is presented, that was it.

A similar scenario happened with Mercedes at the end of the 2021 season when they sought to have Hamilton listed as champion instead of Max Verstappen, following the controversial finish to the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

So why is Massa now wanting to explore his legal options?

The scandal was a thing of the past for all concerned for many years until the sport's former chief made some eye-opening comments in March.

Bernie Ecclestone was chief executive of F1 for many decades, including the 2008 season.

In an interview with German publication F1 Insider, Ecclestone said he and then-FIA president Max Mosley knew about Crashgate during the 2008 season.

The British businessman said F1 "should have cancelled the race in Singapore".

"We decided not to do anything for now. 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," he said.

"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."

Few revelations will ever be as eye-opening as the former chief executive of F1 saying a different driver should be world champion, but it isn't because they were more concerned with public relations.

Ecclestone's comments have now led Massa to look at his legal options concerning a world championship he believes should have been his.

He told the publication Autosport last weekend that Ferrari's lawyers had told him in the aftermath of the 2008 season there was nothing that could be done to change the result of the championship.

"We went to other lawyers and the answer was that nothing could be done. So I logically believed in this situation," Massa said.

"But after 15 years, we hear that the [former] owner of the category says that he found out in 2008, together with the president of the FIA, and they did nothing [so as] to not tarnish the name of F1.

"This is very sad, to know the result of this race was supposed to be cancelled and I would have a title."

Could the 2008 world championship change hands?

In all likelihood, no.

The FIA's International Sporting Code does not allow any review of any competition after 14 days.

Massa could consider going to the International Court of Appeal, which the FIA states is the absolute authority on any ruling.

But even then, that seems far-fetched.

It would be very hard for a body to take a world championship away from a driver over a scandal they had nothing to do with.

"I intend to study the situation; study what the laws say, and the rules. We have to have an idea of what it is possible to do," Massa told Autosport.

"We have already seen other situations happening in sports, such as Lance Armstrong, who was proven to have doped, and he lost all the [cycling] titles. What is the difference?"

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