Bernie Ecclestone’s legal professionals dismantle the claims of the previous Ferrari driver within the London trial
Crashgate trial: how we received right here
The primary spherical of hearings within the London Crashgate trial has concluded. On one facet is Felipe Massa, searching for a considerable sum in damages and recognition because the ethical winner of the 2008 championship. On the opposite facet are the defendants — FIA, System 1, and Bernie Ecclestone — who oppose the previous Ferrari driver’s claims, arguing that the Brazilian misplaced that World Championship on observe, not due to Nelson Piquet Jr’s deliberate crash that influenced that notorious Singapore Grand Prix.
The principle argument is that Massa, who scored no factors within the race, didn’t fail as a result of “plot” orchestrated by the management of the then-Renault workforce, led by Flavio Briatore, to favor Fernando Alonso’s victory, however due to a mistake made by Ferrari: resulting from a malfunction with the pit cease gentle, Massa left the pit whereas the gas nozzle was nonetheless connected to his automobile. Massa’s legal professionals, nonetheless, argue that the race must be annulled as a result of manipulation that led to an unlawful remaining outcome (Alonso’s victory, favored by his teammate’s crash) and that, had the GP been canceled, the 2008 title would have gone to the Ferrari driver.
Ecclestone’s protection crushes Felipe Massa
“Massa’s poor efficiency within the race was not associated to the crash,” explains Bernie Ecclestone’s 95-year-old lawyer, David Quest, based on The Athletic, “nor to Lewis Hamilton’s sturdy efficiency, and neither have been conscious of Renault’s maneuver. It was as an alternative resulting from the truth that Massa left the pit cease prematurely with the gas hose nonetheless connected to his automobile.”
There are additionally procedural points for the reason that lawsuit began a few years after the occasions: “The opposite facet maybe intends to deal with this court docket as a sports activities debate membership, asking to have interaction in a counterfactual train in regards to the arbitration of a sporting occasion from nearly 17 years in the past and to deprive Mr. Hamilton of his 2008 title, regardless that he’s not a celebration to this case. He nonetheless suffered the results of the crash and didn’t make the identical driving errors as Mr. Massa through the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.”
“The sporting penalties of the incident,” concludes Bernie Ecclestone’s lawyer, “have been already addressed by the FIA World Motor Sport Council. But when the Federation was unwilling to acknowledge Mr. Massa as champion in 2009 after cautious overview, how can a court docket be anticipated to take action now? The court docket shouldn’t enable a hopeless declare simply because Mr. Massa needs to revive a reminiscence from his distant previous.”
The FOM argument
Anneliese Day, lawyer defending FOM — the group managing System 1’s rights and on the time led by Bernie Ecclestone — shares the identical view: “This dispute is not going to give Mr. Massa the award he seeks, and the one winners of one other 12 to 18 months of litigation would be the legal professionals. The very fact is that, each through the Singapore GP and all through the 2008 season, Mr. Hamilton beat Mr. Massa and everybody else. There’s nothing uncommon or unfair about this: Felipe Massa merely had the misfortune of going through one of many biggest drivers the game has ever seen, and neither he nor anybody else was in a position to beat Hamilton throughout that season.”
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