Former Ferrari and FIA chief Jean Todt has backed Felipe Massa in the Brazilian’s ongoing legal battle with the FIA over the result of the 2008 F1 World Championship. Massa is seeking compensation from the association for Nelson Piquet Jr’s “deliberate accident” at the Singapore Grand Prix that caused him to lose the Drivers’ Championship that year to Lewis Hamilton.
Massa’s lawyer, Bernardo Viana, had given the FIA until mid-October to respond to a Letter Before Claim sent to them in August. The deadline has since been extended with a verdict on whether or not the case could go to court expected later this month. If it does go to court, Hamilton could potentially face being stripped of his world title.
“The objective is to bring the trophy home. It’s not financial,” Viana told Motorsport.com. “To get there, several measures will be taken with different aims, some to obtain information and others to obtain statements. We want everything that happened in 2008/09 to come to light.
“We are quite confident in the evidence we have, without prejudice to the additional ones we are looking for, and without prejudice to everything that will come to light. We understand that there is even more information that has not been made public.”
Todt, who served as Ferrari’s General Manager of Racing between 1993 and 2007, believes the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix was “rigged” and has sided with his former driver. “I won’t get into the controversy, but it was very hard for him psychologically,” Todt told Italian newspaper La Stampa.
“Maybe we could have been tougher when the story became known, but there is no doubt that the Singapore Grand Prix was rigged, and should have been cancelled.”
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Massa’s legal team allege that former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone and then FIA president Max Mosley were involved in a cover-up which cost the ex-Ferrari star an F1 title and “tens of millions of euros” in lost income and reputational harm.
Ecclestone later said of the incident in an interview with F1-Insider: “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.”
