{"id":363850,"date":"2024-01-30T00:55:12","date_gmt":"2024-01-30T01:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=363850"},"modified":"2024-01-30T03:03:12","modified_gmt":"2024-01-30T03:03:12","slug":"f1-legal-battle-tipped-to-resurface-past-unjust-decisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=363850","title":{"rendered":"F1 legal battle tipped to resurface 'past unjust decisions'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Felipe Massa's crusade to right the wrongs of his 2008 Formula 1<\/a> title robbery could set a "very interesting" precedent, according to his former race engineer Rob Smedley.<\/p>\n

The Brazilian is in the midst of a legal battle focused on the result of the Singapore Grand Prix that year.<\/p>\n

In the first running of the race, Renault driver Nelson Piquet Jr. crashed intentionally in a bid to boost teammate Fernando Alonso's hopes of victory.<\/p>\n

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Alonso went on to win the race and the ramifications of the crash led to team boss Flavio Briatore being banned for life.<\/p>\n

\"Felipe<\/p>\n

More than a decade on, former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone said the race result should have been scratched.<\/p>\n

Ecclestone reportedly told Piquet Jr. to remain silent until after the end-of-season awards ceremony, at which point the results could not be changed.<\/p>\n

Ecclestone chose not to investigate the matter to avoid damage to the sport's reputation.<\/p>\n

Had the result been scrubbed, Massa would have won the F1 title after falling one point short behind Lewis Hamilton.<\/p>\n

\"Renault's<\/p>\n

Hamilton finished third for McLaren at the Marina Bay Street Circuit while Massa was outside the points in 13th.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Massa had been leading at the time of the accident but a calamitous pit stop ruined his race after he drove off with the fuel nozzle still attached.<\/p>\n

Massa and Ferrari guru Smedley were a force in the late 2000s and early 2010s, winning multiple races and nearly clinching the world championship together.<\/p>\n

Speaking on The Race F1 podcast, Smedley said Massa is well within his right to protest the result but wonders what might come of it.<\/p>\n

"Everybody should have a personal right to pursue, within the bands of legality obviously, what they think is just \u2013 and that's the case with Felipe here," he continued.<\/p>\n

\"Felipe<\/p>\n

"There's lots of different parties involved. We're starting to look back at the past. Where this will end up, I've got no idea.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"I keep a watching brief on it. That's kind of all I do, all I can do and all I want to do.<\/p>\n

"So it's of interest, because in the scenario where it does get flipped, what does that open up at that point? In terms of sporting decisions, not only in F1 but in the past.<\/p>\n

"That's not to say that's right or wrong. I'm not trying to fall on either side of the fence here, it's just a really interesting element of all of this.<\/p>\n

"If there is a decision that favours what Felipe is going after, that will then be very, very interesting for how sport in general deals with past unjust decisions, let's say."<\/p>\n

Smedley said he had no doubts that Piquet Jr. crashed on purpose, and those within the F1 paddock knew almost immediately too.<\/p>\n

\"Nelson<\/p>\n

The crash took place at a simple, 90-degree left-hander where there have hardly been any incidents in the 15 years since.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"How you crash there, I've got no idea," said Smedley.<\/p>\n

"I've got no idea how young Nelson crashed there. Well, we have got an idea of how he did it. I watched it live and I was watching it thinking 'Strange'.<\/p>\n

"Then you watch the replays and by the third replay you think 'OK, I understand what's happened now'. It's simple to work out. It was obvious straight after what had happened.<\/p>\n

"Then what the ramifications and the repercussions and how you gain justice and all the rest of it. <\/p>\n

"I don't think there was anyone within any element of doubt, especially within my close circle, within Ferrari and the guys we were in touch with in the paddock.<\/p>\n

"We looked at it and said 'Well yeah, that's pretty clear what happened there.'"\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Felipe Massa's crusade to right the wrongs of his 2008 Formula 1 title robbery could set a "very interesting" precedent, according to his former race […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":363852,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363850"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=363850"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":363857,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363850\/revisions\/363857"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/363852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=363850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=363850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=363850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}