Felipe Massa may well be successful in his quest for justice some 15 years after Formula 1’s disgraceful ’crashgate’ scandal of 2008.
That is the view of former FIA president Jean Todt, whose predecessor Max Mosley was in charge when Renault bosses conspired to steal victory at Singapore in 2008 by ordering Nelson Piquet to deliberately crash.
"According to Bernie Ecclestone, Max Mosley, my predecessor, and Charlie Whiting, who was the race director of Formula 1 at the time, were in the know from the very beginning," Todt, also the former Ferrari boss whose son Nicholas was Massa’s manager, told the French sports daily L’Equipe.
The 77-year-old insists he had no such similar knowledge about the scandal when he became FIA president.
"I was not informed about this," Todt said. "But the completely new fact, if it is true and can be verified, is that the regulatory body that runs the championship knew about it."
Massa, who claims he should be 2008 world champion rather than Lewis Hamilton, is threatening legal action against the FIA and F1 if the ’crashgate’ wrongs are not now corrected.
"Unfortunately, Charlie and Max have passed away," Todt said.
"The rule at the FIA has always been that results of the world championship must be ratified before December 31 and then we never retract them.
"But in the case of Singapore 2008, the facts were not revealed until a year later and the sanctions imposed by the FIA before my arrival were annulled by the court in Paris," he added.
"Finding out that the federation knew the truth before this famous December 31 could change things."