Felipe Massa forewarned of Lewis Hamilton court battle outcome over 2008 title

Johnny Herbert believes Felipe Massa will be unsuccessful in his legal challenge over the 2008 World title, with the Brazilian having recently stated his intent to litigate against the FIA and FOM.

The former Ferrari driver had missed out at the last moment of the season following Lewis Hamilton’s last-corner overtake on Timo Glock at Interlagos, but the claim relates to the ‘Crashgate’ scandal from Singapore, in which Renault were found to have instructed Nelson Piquet Junior to crash and bring out the Safety Car – which adversely affected Massa at that point, who had led the race.

Bernie Ecclestone was quotedby German website F1-Insider as saying Massa was “cheated” out of the title because of that incident, prompting the Brazilian’s claim for compensation.

Felipe Massa warned ‘he won’t get awarded the championship’

However, Ecclestone has since claimed he cannot remember giving the interview through which the quotes emerged.

While the nature of the Letter Before Claim submitted to the FIA and FOM makes it clear that Massa’s lawyers believe he is the “rightful” World Champion, it is not yet clear if he is chasing a change in the sporting outcome or just financial compensation.

That said, Massa’s lawyers believe he has lost a significant amount of income by not having won the World Championship – such is the gravity attached to being a title winner.

“Simply put, Mr Massa is the rightful 2008 Driver’s Champion, and F1 and FIA deliberately ignored the misconduct that cheated him out of that title,”Reutersquote the letter as having said.

“Mr Massa is unable to fully quantify his losses at this stage but estimates that they are likely to exceed tens of millions of Euros.

“This amount does not cover the serious moral and reputational losses suffered by Mr Massa.”

For three-time race winner Herbert, he does not believe Massa will get the result of the title overturned, thinking the time to take the case to court was when top bosses at Renault were banned from Formula 1 in the wake of the Crashgate investigation.

PlanetF1.com建议

F1 Sprint World Championship? The unusual proposal involving reserve drivers

F1 driver contracts: What is the current contract status of every driver on the 2023 grid?

“He won’t get awarded the championship,” Herbert said to CasinoSite.nl.

“We know the crash was a done deal with Flavio Briatore and Nelson Piquet Junior. It potentially did lose Felipe a World Championship.

“Is it the right way to go about it? I doubt it. He is never going to be awarded the World Championship.

“Suing is not going to achieve the one thing he really wants – that World Championship – even if it goes to court – except that he should have been.

“If ever he was going to do it, it should have been when Flavio and Piquet were found guilty and kicked out of the sport.”

F1 declined to comment on Massa’s legal challenge when approached by PlanetF1.com, while the FIA and Massa’s lawyers have also been approached for comment.

Read next:Who is Daniel Ricciardo’s AlphaTauri replacement Liam Lawson?