Bernie Ecclestone hits again: “Massa has his share of blame” as Crashgate listening to begins in London
The authorized battle between Felipe Massa, the FIA, and Bernie Ecclestone has formally begun in London, as the previous Ferrari driver seeks justice over the 2008 Components 1 World Championship and the long-standing Crashgate controversy.
The preliminary listening to of the case Felipe Massa vs FIA, Bernie Ecclestone, and Components One Administration (FOM) befell on the Royal Courts of Justice, Courtroom 73, with the Brazilian driver current in individual. On the middle of the dispute is the dealing with of the notorious 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, generally known as Crashgate — a scandal which Massa claims decisively altered the end result of the championship, in the end received by Lewis Hamilton by only one level.
This isn’t but a full trial, however fairly a three-day listening to by which the authorized representatives of every get together current their arguments to Justice Jay, who will determine whether or not the case ought to proceed to trial. Massa is demanding £60 million in damages and an official public declaration recognizing him because the “rightful 2008 world champion.” Nonetheless, each side acknowledge that the court docket has no authority to change the official sporting outcomes of that season.
Pressure rises once more between Massa and Ecclestone over Crashgate
Through the opening day, the attorneys representing Ecclestone and the FIA described Massa’s initiative as a “misguided try” to reopen issues that had been settled 17 years in the past. David Quest KC, Bernie Ecclestone’s lawyer, acknowledged in his written protection that the Brazilian’s claims “flip the court docket right into a sports activities debate membership,” asking the choose to reconstruct race occasions gone. Quest added, “Hamilton didn’t make the identical driving errors as Massa, comparable to restarting from the pit lane with the gasoline hose nonetheless connected to the Ferrari.”
The lawsuit stems from Ecclestone’s 2023 interview, by which he admitted that each he and then-FIA president Max Mosley had been conscious that Nelson Piquet Jr.’s crash on the 2008 Singapore GP had been deliberate — and that they selected to not act on the time. In response to Massa’s argument, each Ecclestone and Mosley determined to maintain the reality hidden to keep away from a scandal that might injury the status of Components 1. The incident solely got here to gentle in 2009, after Renault dismissed Piquet Jr.
In her protection assertion, Annelise Day KC, representing Components One Administration, dismissed the case as “a declare destined to fail.” She wrote, “It’s in nobody’s curiosity — least of all Mr. Massa’s — to lengthen the frustration of dropping the 2008 title,” emphasizing that “the one final result of one other 18 months of hearings can be to counterpoint the attorneys.”
In the meantime, John Mehrzad KC, representing the FIA, described the lawsuit as “convoluted and overly formidable,” including that Felipe Massa “ignores a protracted listing of errors made by himself and the Ferrari workforce in the course of the Singapore Grand Prix and all through the remainder of the season,” which in the end contributed to his second-place end within the championship.
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