The video of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix still feels heavy for people who supported Ferrari. You watch Nelson Piquet Jr crash, you watch the safety car ruin Felipe Massa’s race, and you remember that the 2008 title was lost by 1 point. This week that same clip came back on social media when Massa arrived at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. He says Formula 1 and the FIA already knew the crash was planned and stayed quiet to protect the sport. So he wants a judge to say the result should not have counted. Watch it here for the full scene.
Courtroom Fight Over 2008 Race
Massa and his lawyers told the judge that the Singapore race was fixed on purpose to help Renault and Fernando Alonso. They say Formula 1, the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone failed to follow their own rules once they had enough signs of cheating. They also say that if the race was cancelled in 2008, Massa would have finished the year in front of Lewis Hamilton. Reports from London said the defence called his claim too late and too ambitious and said Ferrari hurt itself with the fuel hose pit stop that sent Massa to the back. Their point is simple. Even without the crash, mistakes from Ferrari across the season also cost points.
Massa’s side answered with something just as simple. He could live with his own errors. He could not live with a race that was proven to be fake being kept on the books.
What opened the door for him was the 2023 interview where Ecclestone said he and Max Mosley already knew about Crashgate before the end of 2008. That was the part many fans on social media called unfair. They said it felt like speaking for a man who is not here to answer.
It also made people in Brazil feel that the truth was saved for later to protect the brand of Formula 1. Lawyers for the FIA even called the claim torturous and overly ambitious and asked the judge to stop it before trial. The judge will first decide if the case can go forward. Only then will anyone talk about money or about what the record books should say.
Fans Want Closure Not A Rewrite
“Tell Felipe to get over it.” a fan wrote on social media. It was a hard line but it set the tone for much of the talk. Another fan said, “It is 20 years man.” Someone else wrote, “All that for the money money money.” They see a claim for about 64 million pounds and think this is more about lost earnings than about a trophy. Some also asked if any court can really tell an independent sport who its champion should be. That is a fair question because Formula 1 has its own rules and its own courts. A few people even pulled Abu Dhabi 2021 into the mix and said if you change 2008 then you must change that one too.
Yet there were still fans who backed Massa. One said Ferrari supporters waited 17 years for someone inside the sport to admit the race was false. Another said Bernie should not have waited for Max Mosley to pass away before telling the story. They saw the London hearing as a chance to write down what really happened even if the trophy never moves. That is why this Instagram post grew so fast. People may not agree on the outcome. They all agree that a race should never be won because someone hit a wall on purpose. In the end the room online wanted something simple. They wanted the sport to say out loud that 1 rigged race changed a title fight. That kind of honesty is what keeps old fans close and pulls new fans in.
