Lewis Hamilton could have most important F1 title STRIPPED from him as key date named
Lewis Hamilton is a seven-time Formula One champion but the Ferrari driver could have one taken off him in the near future.
Lewis Hamilton could lose the most important title of his Formula One career, with a legal case set to decide the matter.
Hamilton has seven F1 world championships to his name, a record he shares with the legendary Michael Schumacher - who he is now hoping to surpass after making a stunning move to Ferrari.
The 40-year-old won six of his titles with Mercedes but his very first triumph in 2008 came when he was racing for McLaren.
He beat Ferrari's Felipe Massa by a single point in one of the dramatic finales in the history of the sport. Massa won the Brazilian Grand Prix on home soil to make it a sixth win of the season but it wasn't enough to dethrone Hamilton, who finished fifth in Sao Paulo and just did enough to get over the line.
Advert
However, the whole season was engulfed in controversy over the "crashgate" scandal - which occurred at the Singapore Grand Prix.
It emerged that Nelson Piquet Jr, on the orders of Renault, had intentionally crashed into the wall to help out teammate Fernando Alonso, who went on to win the race.
A safety car was introduced but Massa, having been in pole position, was directly affected and endured a botched pit stop which led to him finishing 13th and comfortably missing out on the points positions while Hamilton finished in third.
When it all came out, Renault were charged with race-fixing and conspiracy by the FIA and managing director Flavio Briatore and engineering director Pat Symonds both left their roles.
But after being denied a first F1 world title, Massa is still attempting to overturn the outcome.
In August 2023, London-based Enyo Law claimed that Massa is "the victim of a conspiracy committed by individuals at the highest level of F1 together with the FIA and Formula One Management”.
The Brazilian’s lawyers said in a letter: “Simply put, Mr Massa is the rightful 2008 Driver's Champion, and F1 and FIA deliberately ignored the misconduct that cheated him out of that title.
“Mr Massa is unable to fully quantify his losses at this stage but estimates that they are likely to exceed tens of millions of Euros.”
Massa's legal team will go up against the FIA, FOM (Formula One management), and former F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone, who allegedly said he and then-FIA president Max Mosley "decided to protect the sport".
It will all go down at a London courtroom on October 28 until October 31.
43-year-old Massa retired in 2017 but is hoping he can finally become F1 champion at the expense of Hamilton, who could potentially have his first crown taken off him.
It shows that maybe every decision on the legal side, everything that happens, it was not correct in that situation.
Massa's comments on F1 controversy
Speaking ahead of the Miami Grand Prix in May 2023, Massa discussed why he was taking legal action.
"So I took the decision to study the legal side of everything that happened," he said.
"I'm not doing this for money but I'm doing this for justice. Not only for me, but for my friends, my country, my family, Ferrari and Ferrari fans, so in the end there are so many things.
"You know what a championship does for a country? You can develop the country, we don't have Brazilian drivers now racing as well, so there are so many things.
"This is racing, everything that went wrong is part of the game. When you have a problem in the engine or when you have a mistake.
"You cannot really say 'I was wrong because my engine broke down'. No. But what happened in that race is a different situation."
Topics: Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
Josh Lawless