F1 News: Lewis Hamilton's First Championship Title In Serious Danger Of Being Removed

Former F1 driver Felipe Massa is continuing with his efforts to have the results of the 2008 drivers' championship overturned, removing Lewis Hamilton's first title, and he is adamant he has a strong case.

This has all come after former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone admitted to knowing about a deliberate crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix and doing nothing about it. This crash impacted the result of the championship, which Hamilton won by just one point.

Ecclestone explained during an interview with F1 Insider:

“Max Mosley [former FIA President] and I were informed during the 2008 season what had happened in the race in Singapore.

"Piquet junior had told his father Nelson that he had been asked by the team to drive into the wall at a certain point in order to trigger a safety car phase and such to help his teammate Alonso.

"Piquet junior was worried about his contract extension, so he was under a lot of pressure and agreed. We decided not to do anything for now. We wanted to protect the sport and save it from a huge scandal.

"That's why I used angelic tongues to persuade my former pilot Nelson Piquet to keep calm for the time being.”

During an interview with Esportelandia, Massa has explained that he is continuing to push to have the results overturned, meaning that Hamilton would lose his first championship win. He said:

"I was totally wronged by what happened that year, in a stolen race. This made me go after justice.

"I'm not a lawyer, but everyone knows, I was clearly wronged and I think justice is part of our fight to get what happened right."

Acknowledging what Ecclestone had revealed, Massa continued:

"That was [a manipulation]. They made Nelsinho Piquet crash because he wanted to help his teammate, who was last in the race, to win.

"They totally did a manipulation for a result. The end of the race was completely different from what it should have been. So it was manipulation.

"Like in 2007, when McLaren took Ferrari's project, copied the car and they were disqualified from the championship, they were punished for a situation.

"In this case [from 2008], there was no punishment. In football and other sports, many things happened, where the results were corrected."