F1 News: Felipe Massa "Surprised" By FIA President's Statement - "Didn't Have This Conversation"

The FIA President said he had a word with Massa but the former driver refutes the claim.

Former F1 driver Felipe Massa said he was surprised by FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem's claims about his legal challenge against the 2008 Formula 1 Championship outcome, which was manipulated by the Crashgate scandal.

Massa initiated a legal battle against the FIA and FOM to re-evaluate and re-declare the outcome of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix that was won by Fernando Alonso after his teammate Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately crashed and supposedly changed the championship outcome of the 2008 season as well. That season, the Brazilian driver lost the title to Lewis Hamilton by just 1 point.

During the race in question, Massa was in a battle to win more points for a championship victory but a stuck fuel hose after pitting caused him to lose points. Now though, he claims that the conspiracy by Renault and Piquet caused him to lose the title, thus demanding that the Singapore GP be declared void so he could be declared as championship winner. 

While the governing authority and F1 have until 15 November to send their responses over the matter to Massa's legal team, Ben Sulayem commented on the issue saying he had discussed the matter with Massa. 

 Speaking to Reuters, the FIA president said:

"I answered him saying 'It's up to you, you do what you think is right for you, but the FIA will have to protect themselves.'

"We have our rules, we have our sporting rules, and our statutes, which say a certain period after that you can't [do anything]... but people can challenge that. It's not the book of God." 

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However, Massa said that he had no conversation with Ben Sulayem on the matter. He even went on to claim that he got no response from the FIA president when he messaged him to express that he was open to having a dialogue. He told Autosport:

“I was a little surprised, because we didn't have this conversation with him. We never talked about the case. 

"In the end, I didn't have a conversation with him. I sent a message explaining the case and saying that I was available for us to talk, but he never responded to me. We never had that conversation.

"I hope and believe that the FIA has to defend the sport. But it's not [about] defending itself, but defending what is fair and what is right for sport in general. I think that's the main point."

The Brazilian driver is hoping that the existing FIA and FOM would be open to fixing the errors made by its people in the past, rather than trying to defend their mistakes. He added:

“We understand that they are the same companies, but they are different people compared to those of the time.

"I hope the people today show that things are different, so I hope that the people who are in charge today, both in the FIA and FOM, see that this type of situation is unacceptable and that they can't turn their backs on a case like this. I really hope they clean it up.” 

Massa also said that he and his legal team were after the title. The correct thing to do as per him would be to cancel the 2008 Singapore GP so that he and Lewis Hamilton could share the championship. He said:

“I think the most important thing is for us to have justice done in the right way.

"The correct thing, the work [of my lawyers], is cancel the race [Singapore].

"I understand that we are 15 years after it, but justice has to be done the right way and that is what we will fight for.

"If justice is done and we think that this is really the right thing to do [sharing the title with Hamilton], especially because [sharing of championships] happened in other sports, it is something to be analysed. But we are going after justice and after the trophy, that's the main point.” 

No Word With Lewis Hamilton 

Massa also added that he never had a word with Hamilton on the matter. He revealed:

“I have never spoken to Hamilton [about this] and, in fact, I see that people are very afraid to comment on the case.

"But I have a lot of support, to be honest, from a lot of people who cannot speak, and a lot support from people on the street, from my country, from other countries too.”