Oct.30 (GMM) Felipe Massa’s long-awaited legal action against Bernie Ecclestone, the FIA, and Formula One Management (FOM) officially began this week at London’s Royal Courts of Justice – coincidentally on Ecclestone’s 95th birthday.
The 44-year-old Brazilian is seeking recognition as the rightful 2008 world champion and tens of millions in damages for lost earnings, arguing that the sport’s governing bodies failed to act properly following Nelson Piquet Jr’s deliberate crash at the 2008 Singapore GP.
Massa’s lawyers claim the FIA “violated its regulations by failing to promptly investigate” the incident, asserting that he “would have won the Drivers’ Championship that year had the proper procedures been followed.”
But the defendants are pushing for the lawsuit to be dismissed.
In its filing, the FIA described Massa’s claim as “as torturous as it is overly ambitious,” noting that the Brazilian’s case “conspicuously overlooks a catalogue of his own errors or those of his team, Ferrari, during the Singapore GP and other races.”
Ecclestone’s lawyer, David Quest KC, told the court that the case was “a misguided attempt to reopen the 2008 Championship,” calling it “a sports-debate-club exercise” that would “deprive Mr (Lewis) Hamilton of his 2008 title even though he too was involved in the accident.”
Anneliese Day KC, representing FOM, added: “It wasn’t the safety-car period that changed the story for Massa, but a series of subsequent racing errors by him and Ferrari. Hamilton outperformed Mr Massa throughout the Singapore GP and the entire 2008 season.”
For his part, Massa’s lawyer Nick di Marco – also recently representing Alex Palou – argued that the opposing parties had failed to show the case “lacks any real prospects of success,” insisting “Mr Massa has a real chance of success in all respects.”
Judge Sir Robert Jay is hearing the preliminary arguments this week and will decide whether the case proceeds or is dismissed – with a ruling expected by Friday.
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