Court Ruling Deals Blow to Massa’s 2008 F1 Championship Claim
The FIA has claimed victory in its legal battle against Felipe Massa after a three-day hearing in London this October. A High Court judge ruled that while the case can proceed to trial based on two tort claims, three of Massa’s key claims were dismissed.
Most notably, the court rejected Massa’s argument that he would have won the 2008 F1 World Championship if the FIA hadn’t breached regulations during the infamous Crashgate scandal.
Massa lost the 2008 title to Lewis Hamilton in heartbreaking fashion during the final round in Brazil.
The former Ferrari driver has long maintained that the controversial “Crashgate” incident cost him the championship. The scandal involved Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately crashing during the Singapore Grand Prix to give his Renault teammate, Fernando Alonso, a strategic advantage.
But the court wasn’t buying it.
The judge dismissed this claim because “there was no real prospect of such declarations being made by the Court,” according to the ruling summary.
Massa’s tort claim and breach of contract claims against the FIA were also thrown out for being “statute-barred” – basically, he waited too long to file them.
The Court didn’t stop there. They expressed “serious doubts” about Massa’s breach of duty claim, dismissing it on grounds that it had “no real prospect of success.”
While the case isn’t completely over, the FIA is treating this as a significant win in what’s been a drawn-out legal battle.
The judge offered a stark warning about future proceedings, noting that any continued litigation wouldn’t be “plain sailing” for Massa, who would face “various obstacles on causation.”
There was one small ray of hope for the Brazilian driver. The ruling stated: “If successful, Mr Massa could in principle recover damages for lost career opportunities, but the court cannot be asked to rewrite the outcome of the 2008 Drivers’ World Championship.”
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