Motor racing-Ecclestone says Massa is right to sue in English court

Liberty Media

12/03/2024 12:19

By Alan Baldwin
       LONDON, March 12 (Reuters) - Former Formula One supremo
Bernie Ecclestone said on Tuesday Felipe Massa was right to take
his fight to be recognised as the 2008 world champion to the
London High Court.
    Lawyers for the Brazilian former Ferrari driver announced on
Monday legal action against Formula One Management (FOM), the
governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) and
Ecclestone.
    The 42-year-old is also claiming compensation for estimated 
financial losses of around 64 million pounds ($82 million) plus
interest for missing out on the title by a single point to
Britain's Lewis Hamilton.
    Ecclestone told Reuters by telephone from Brazil that, had
he been Massa's manager he would have advised him to take action
in England.
    "The best thing he could do is sue in England. He wants
something straightforward so it will be straightforward. No axe
to grind from anybody. So we’ll wait and see," said the
93-year-old Briton.
    "It might help him if an English judge comes out and says
something that’s in his favour, it would be good for him."
    Ecclestone has plenty of experience of the British legal
system, most recently last October when he paid 652.6 million
pounds but was spared a jail term after pleading guilty to
misleading Britain's tax authority about overseas assets.
    In 2014 he won a High Court case brought against him by
German media company Constantin Medien who had sought $100
million in damages following the sale of a stake in the sport
eight years earlier.
    That same year he paid $100 million to end a bribery trial
in Germany.
    Massa's claim has made much of an Ecclestone quote to the
German website F1 Insider stating that the Brazilian should have
been world champion in 2008 and was "deprived of the title he
deserved" by a Singapore Grand Prix scandal.
    Ecclestone repeated last year's assertion that he had no
recollection of saying that and said he had tried, in vain, to
find a recording.
    Massa was leading that race from pole position when
compatriot Nelson Piquet Jr crashed his Renault into the wall on
lap 14 of 61, triggering the safety car.
    Piquet's team mate Fernando Alonso went on to win, while
Massa failed to score after a bungled pitstop.
    Piquet revealed in 2009 that team bosses, who were
subsequently banned, had ordered him to crash.
    Massa wants the FIA to acknowledge it breached its own
regulations by not immediately investigating the crash and
cancelling the race result, which would have made him the
champion.
    The Paris-based FIA and London-headquartered FOM, a part of
U.S. company Liberty Media, have not commented on the
Brazilian's legal action.

 (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ed Osmond)
 ((alan.baldwin@thomsonreuters.com; +442075427933;))