A premeditated crash on lap 14 of the 2008 Singapore GP by Nelson Piquet saw Fernando Alonso victorious. While it resulted in major penalties for Renault and the offenders associated with it, few others lost more, i.e. Felipe Massa. The ex-Ferrari driver has now taken ex-F1 honcho Bernie Ecclestone’s words seriously. While Ecclestone made the shocking revelation, the question that is posed now is if Lewis Hamilton was in the wrong for claiming his first world title.
Lewis Hamilton changed the history books when he overtook Timo Glock to claim his first world title. However, even 15 years later, a few think that the title rightly belonged to Massa, including Bernie. The Megalomaniac has even gone ahead to say that he believes Michael Schumacher to be the only 7x champion.
While the man has easily pointed fingers at the Briton, Bernie Ecclestone has recently admitted that he also played a part in covering the tracks to “save the sport” which eventually led to Lewis winning. But probably in search of redemption now believes that Massa was the rightful winner.
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In an interview with F1 Insider, as quoted by Motorsport, Bernie revealed that he knew the insights all along. He said, “We decided not to do anything for now. We wanted to protect the sport and save it from a huge scandal. That’s why I used angelic tongues to persuade my former driver Nelson Piquet to keep calm for the time being.”
Favoring the ex-Ferrari driver and almost the champion, he also added, “We had enough information in time to investigate the matter. According to the statutes, we should have canceled the race in Singapore under these conditions. That means it would never have happened for the championship standings. And then Felipe Massa would have become world champion and not Lewis Hamilton.”
While the said interview came out a month ago, the latest is that the man Ecclestone had been favoring in his interviews has now decided to take action in 2008 title hopes.
Felipe Massa has decided to ponder legal options against Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 WDC
Ferrari’s happiness lasted for 20 seconds before Lewis Hamilton overtook Timo Glock to brutally snatch that brief moment of happiness from the scarlet team. A crying Massa, though victorious in the race, had lost his title to Lewis Hamilton. And now, due to the above revelation, the title hope of Massa stands reignited 15 years later.
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Speaking to Motorsports, Massa revealed that Bernie’s words made a difference, he said “But after 15 years, we hear that the [former] owner of the category says that he found out in 2008, together with the president of the FIA, and they did nothing [so as] to not tarnish the name of F1. “
“This is very sad, to know the result of this race was supposed to be cancelled and I would have a title. In the end, I was the one who lost the most with this result. So, we are going after it to understand all this.”
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Do you think Felipe Massa’s title dreams will go through or will the limitation period and a cry 15 years later let Lewis Hamilton stay a 7-time champion?