{"id":375011,"date":"2024-03-11T18:58:05","date_gmt":"2024-03-11T19:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=375011"},"modified":"2024-03-11T21:02:31","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T21:02:31","slug":"racing-great-sues-f1-chiefs-for-124m-injustice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=375011","title":{"rendered":"Racing great sues F1 chiefs for $124m 'injustice'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former driver Felipe Massa said he's filed a lawsuit in London against auto racing governing body the FIA, series owner Formula One<\/a> Management and Bernie Ecclestone to try to claim the 2008 title.<\/p>\n

Massa added he was also seeking a minimum of $124 million in damages, a document obtained by The Associated Press showed. That amount included prize money he lost and other potential deals he would have obtained as a F1 champion.<\/p>\n

Massa has claimed since last year he was the \u201crightful\u201d 2008 champion due to the incident known as \u201cCrashgate". The 42-year-old Brazilian was runner-up to Lewis Hamilton by one point.<\/p>\n

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Former Ferrari and Williams driver Massa said in a statement his case would be heard at the King\u2019s Bench Division of the High Court.<\/p>\n

His decision came after months of preparatory steps that included his lawyers asking auto racing bodies to reply to his public allegations of a breach of contract.<\/p>\n

\"Felipe<\/p>\n

\u201cI always said I was going to fight until the end,\u201d Massa said in the statement. \u201cSince the FIA and FOM decided not to do anything, we will seek to right this historical injustice in court. The matter is now for our lawyers and they are fully authorised to do whatever is necessary so justice in sport is served.\u201d<\/p>\n

His allegations relate to the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, where Nelson Piquet Jr crashed deliberately to help then-Renault teammate Fernando Alonso win the race.<\/p>\n

The Renault team was eventually punished but the results stood in the 15th race of 18 that year. Massa never got closer to the title.<\/p>\n

Last year, former F1 boss Ecclestone said in an interview with website F1 Insider that he learned through the course of 2008 that Piquet Jr crashed deliberately. He added he chose not to investigate the incident until the season ended, when it was too late to change the standings.<\/p>\n

Piquet Jr\u2019s crash came when Massa was in front in Singapore. A safety car was brought in, which squandered his lead and gave Alonso a clear advantage as he was the only driver who had already made a pit stop to refuel. Massa went on to finish out of the points in 13th place after a calamitous pit stop, while Hamilton finished third in that race.<\/p>\n

Massa\u2019s filing said he wants \u201ca declaration that the FIA acted in breach of its own regulations in failing to investigate the circumstances of the crash promptly in 2008\u201d and \u201ca declaration that if the FIA had not acted in breach of its own regulations, it would have canceled or adjusted the results of the Singapore Grand Prix with the consequence that Mr Massa would have won the drivers\u2019 championship in 2008.<\/p>\n

"The defendants\u2019 actions caused significant financial loss to the claimant,\u201d the document added. News about the race-fixing scandal involving Piquet Jr emerged the following year.<\/p>\n

The driver\u2019s filing also said the FIA's failure to promptly investigate Crashgate \u201cconstituted a most serious form of wrongdoing".<\/p>\n

\"Felipe<\/p>\n

The FIA told the AP it will not comment.<\/p>\n

FOM has not answered a request for comment from the AP.<\/p>\n

Ecclestone could not immediately be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

Massa said in an interview with the AP in August that he had more evidence of wrongdoing to support his case. He also said then that he was considering filing other cases related to the same incident in other countries.<\/p>\n

Massa was met with silence in the paddock at the last Brazilian Grand Prix, as his case against the FIA and FOM loomed. At the time, he claimed he had a final deadline of November 15 to get answers from auto racing bodies before taking any action against them.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany drivers do support me in this, but they don\u2019t want to speak. I don\u2019t regret any of this, justice is a bigger good here,\u201d he said then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former driver Felipe Massa said he's filed a lawsuit in London against auto racing governing body the FIA, series owner Formula One Management and Bernie […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":324326,"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\/375011"}],"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=375011"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":375014,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375011\/revisions\/375014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/324326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=375011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=375011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=375011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}