“I'm doing this for the justice” - Felipe Massa explains why he pushed for Lewis Hamilton’s maiden F1 title to be investigated

Felipa Massa has explained the reasons behind his decision to have Lewis Hamilton's 2008 F1 title investigated.

The 2009 F1 title was Hamilton's maiden triumph in the sport and one that firmly established the then-McLaren driver as of the F1's best youngsters. He beat Massa, who was with Ferrari, to the drivers' championship by one point.

However, one point of discussion from that season remains Nelson Piquet Jr's crash at the 2008 Singapore GP — widely dubbed 'crashgate'. It has long been said that Piquet deliberately crashed in that race to help his then-Renault teammate Fernando Alonso win the race.

Now, Massa has been looking into the possibilities of overturning the result of the 2008 F1 World Championship. Explaining why he is seeking any kind of "justice" on the matter, the Brazilian told RacingNews365.com:

“I'm not doing this for money. I'm not doing this for anything. Because it's not what I aim to, but I'm doing this for the 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."

He added:

“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 on that race is a different situation.”

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Bernie Ecclestone, the man who prompted Felipe Massa's investigation of Lewis Hamilton's 2008 F1 title

Former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone recently revealed that he and then-FIA President Max Mosley knew about the details of 'crashgate'. He also admitted that they kept the incident under wraps to "protect the sport and save it from a huge scandal."

Ecclestone said (via F1-Insider):

"Max and I were informed during the 2008 season about what had happened in the race in Singapore. [Nelson] Piquet Jr had told his father [three-time F1 champion] Nelson that he had been asked by the team to deliberately drive into the wall at a certain point in time in order to trigger a safety car phase and help his team-mate [Fernando] Alonso. We decided not to do anything for the time being. We wanted to protect the sport and save it from a huge scandal."

He added:

"At that time there was the rule that a World Championship classification after the FIA award ceremony at the end of the year is untouchable. So [Lewis] Hamilton was presented with the championship trophy and everything was fine. I still feel sorry for [Felipe] Massa today.

"He won the final at his home race in Sao Paulo and did everything right. He was cheated out of the deserved title, while Hamilton had all the luck in the world and won his first championship. Today I would have arranged it differently."

It was Ecclestone's comments that prompted Massa to "study" the laws and reinvestigate the situation. The Brazilian is said to have assembled a team of lawyers who are actively looking at the case in detail.