{"id":136076,"date":"2025-10-30T14:12:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T22:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/10\/30\/if-you-dont-win-on-the-race-track-maybe-youll-have-more-luck-in-the-courtroom\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T14:12:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T22:12:25","slug":"if-you-dont-win-on-the-race-track-maybe-youll-have-more-luck-in-the-courtroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/10\/30\/if-you-dont-win-on-the-race-track-maybe-youll-have-more-luck-in-the-courtroom\/","title":{"rendered":"If You Don\u2019t Win On The Race Track, Maybe You\u2019ll Have More Luck In The Courtroom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mr Massa argues that, but for the FIA\u2019s handling of the crash, he would have won the drivers\u2019 championship.
These declarations treat the court as a sports \u2018debating club\u2019, asking it to embark upon a counterfactual exercise concerning the \u2018refereeing\u2019 of a sporting event which took place nearly 17 years ago.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 David Quest KC, attorney for former F1 head Bernie Ecclestone, in a statement concerning the lawsuit filed by former Ferrari driver Felipe Massa. Massa finished second in the 2008 F1 championship, one point behind McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton. Massa\u2019s lawsuit alleges F1 failed to properly handle \u201cCrashgate\u201d during the 2008 season, wherein rival constructor Renault ordered their driver Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash his car during the Singapore Grand Prix in order to stage a win for his teammate Fernando Alonso, thereby leading to a safety car, compromising his strategy and costing Massa the world championship. <\/span><\/em><\/strong>Quest continued, noting, Massa\u2019s claim would \u201cdeprive Mr Hamilton of his 2008 title\u201d despite Hamilton being \u201cequally exposed to the crash.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Anneliese Day KC, for Formula One Management, wrote, \u201cIn truth, it was not the deployment of the safety car which changed the course of history for Mr Massa, but rather a series of subsequent racing errors by him and his team during the remaining 47 laps of the race.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

John Mehrzad KC, attorney for the FIA, agreed, saying Massa\u2019s claim is as \u201ctorturous as it is overly ambitious\u201d and \u201cconspicuously overlooks a catalogue of his own errors.\u201d Those \u201cerrors\u201d famously include Massa driving away from a pit stop prematurely with the fuel hose still attaching and knocking down a member of his pit crew.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ecclestone, the FIA and Formula One Management are seeking dismissal of the lawsuit.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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The post If You Don\u2019t Win On The Race Track, Maybe You\u2019ll Have More Luck In The Courtroom<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mr Massa argues that, but for the FIA\u2019s handling of the crash, he would have won the drivers\u2019 championship.
These declarations treat the court as a sports \u2018debating club\u2019, asking it to embark upon a counterfactual exercise concerning the \u2018refereeing\u2019 of a sporting event which took place nearly 17 years ago.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014 David Quest KC, attorney for former F1 head Bernie Ecclestone, in a statement concerning the lawsuit filed by former Ferrari driver Felipe Massa. Massa finished second in the 2008 F1 championship, one point behind McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton. Massa\u2019s lawsuit alleges F1 failed to properly handle \u201cCrashgate\u201d during the 2008 season, wherein rival constructor Renault ordered their driver Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash his car during the Singapore Grand Prix in order to stage a win for his teammate Fernando Alonso, thereby leading to a safety car, compromising his strategy and costing Massa the world championship. <\/span><\/em><\/strong>Quest continued, noting, Massa\u2019s claim would \u201cdeprive Mr Hamilton of his 2008 title\u201d despite Hamilton being \u201cequally exposed to the crash.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Anneliese Day KC, for Formula One Management, wrote, \u201cIn truth, it was not the deployment of the safety car which changed the course of history for Mr Massa, but rather a series of subsequent racing errors by him and his team during the remaining 47 laps of the race.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

John Mehrzad KC, attorney for the FIA, agreed, saying Massa\u2019s claim is as \u201ctorturous as it is overly ambitious\u201d and \u201cconspicuously overlooks a catalogue of his own errors.\u201d Those \u201cerrors\u201d famously include Massa driving away from a pit stop prematurely with the fuel hose still attaching and knocking down a member of his pit crew.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ecclestone, the FIA and Formula One Management are seeking dismissal of the lawsuit.<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The post If You Don\u2019t Win On The Race Track, Maybe You\u2019ll Have More Luck In The Courtroom<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mr Massa argues that, but for the FIA\u2019s handling of the crash, he would have won the drivers\u2019 championship.These declarations treat the court as a sports \u2018debating club\u2019, asking it to embark upon a counterfactual exercise concerning the \u2018refereeing\u2019 of a sporting event which took place nearly 17 years ago. \u2014 David Quest KC, attorney […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136076\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}