AUGUST 24, 2023

Ferrari not supporting Massa's 2008 title push

Ferrari's boss says he is not supportive of a push by Felipe Massa to be declared world champion.

Massa, now retired, was racing a Ferrari in 2008 when Renault's Nelson Piquet deliberately crashed during the Singapore GP.

Ex-F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone admitted recently that the sport's authorities knew about the deliberate act of cheating before Lewis Hamilton beat Massa to the 2008 title.

His lawyers have now warned the FIA and F1 that they are seriously considering legal action to strip Hamilton of his first crown and have it transferred to Massa, 42, along with damages.

In 2008, Frederic Vasseur led the GP2 team ART - but he is now in charge at Ferrari.

When asked about Massa's push for a retrospective Ferrari-powered world championship, Vasseur said: "I don't really want to comment on this.

"But I have good relations with all the stakeholders. It's quite difficult because we are talking about exceptional circumstances. But more generally, and not mentioning Felipe, I think we are actually trying to push the FIA to know the result of the event at the time of the chequered flag.

I don't know, and I don't want to comment, but it would be strange. I'm not a big fan of the idea of changing the race result even 15 minutes after the chequered flag, he added.
(GMM)