Ecclestone responds: 'Massa wants money, Hamilton had chance with 2021'

Bernie Ecclestone has responded to Felipe Massa's actions. The Brazilian is taking legal action against the 2008 world title. Massa wants him to be the world champion for the season in question and is demanding compensation. Ecclestone reacted to Massa's moves to Blick.ch.

It all revolves around the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. Here, Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately put his Renault into the wall to give teammate Fernando Alonso a good chance of victory. Alonso eventually won the race, and in 2009, Piquet admitted to deliberately crashing. However, Ecclestone said early this year that he, the then F1 boss, knew about the intentionality as early as 2008, prompting Massa to take action. The former Ferrari driver wants the Singapore race to be declared invalid, which would make Massa the 2008 champion.

Ecclestone has been silent since Massa's actions, saying in August only "that he did not remember making those statements". Now just ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix, the former F1 boss has made some comments again: "All Massa cares about is money, but the chances of that are zero. Hamilton and Mercedes would have been better off filing a lawsuit against the not so clean final in Abu Dhabi in 2021."