According to Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur, it would be very strange if, 15 years later, the FIA still gave the 2008 world title to Felipe Massa.
In recent weeks, Felipe Massa has made it clear that he wants to take legal action in response to statements by former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone in order to do justice to the world title of the 2008 F1 season. scandal’ in which Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately crashed and thus influenced not only the outcome of the race but also that of the title fight. Ecclestone said he and FIA boss Max Mosley knew what Renault had done but kept quiet about it so as not to bring the sport into disrepute.
Massa wants at least financial compensation because F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone and the FIA knew at the time that rules had been broken and they should have removed the Singapore GP from the championship. At the same time, fans and many Formula 1 insiders are strongly discussing whether Felipe Massa should still be awarded the 2008 world title.
Frederic Vasseur, Ferrari team boss, was asked in a call ahead of the GP of the Netherlands what he thought of the whole thing and whether Massa should get the title. Vasseur largely kept quiet and tried to respond cautiously to the question.
“As you can imagine, I don’t really want to comment much on this,” said Vasseur. “I have a good relationship with all the stakeholders and it is tricky.”
“The conditions were certainly extraordinary but overall, not about Felipe, we are trying to find out with the FIA the result of a race against the black and white checkered flag.”
“I don’t want to comment much but it would certainly be strange.”
“I’m not really a big fan of changing the result of a race 15 minutes later, let alone 15 years later,” Vasseur concluded.