Lewis Hamilton receives support from former boss against Felipe Massa’s bid to overturn 2008 F1 championship result

Lewis Hamilton recently received support on the 'crashgate' fiasco from Frederic Vasseur, who oversaw the Brit's victorious GP2 campaign in 2006.

Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton were the championship contenders during the 2008 Formula 1 season. During the Singapore Grand Prix, Nelson Piquet Jr. crashed deliberately to put out the safety car. This helped his teammate, Fernando Alonso, take the lead in the race (he was asked by his team to pit early before the crash happened).

Subsequently, he won the race and Lewis Hamilton finished P3 meanwhile Massa had a devastating pit stop and finished the race down at P13. He lost out on a lot of potential points and lost the world championship by a single point.

However, Massa believes that this race should not have been considered because there was a conspiracy involved. The result was considered because the conspiracy was not uncovered until 2009 when Piquet Jr. revealed it himself.

As BBC quoted Frederic Vasseur, he feels that it would be 'strange' to overturn the result of a race fifteen years after it was over. This would also impact the world championship of that season, and Hamilton could potentially drop to having six titles if it happens. Vasseur said:

"I am not a big fan of changing the result 15 minutes after the flag [let alone 15 years]."

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How could Lewis Hamilton lose his championship if the result of the 2008 Singapore GP is overturned?

As mentioned, Lewis Hamilton was on the podium after the end of the race and Felipe Massa could not even score a single point. At the same time, the latter lost the world championship by only a single point in the 2008 season.

If Massa is successful in finding legal ways and manages to omit the result of the race (which he believes should be done), Lewis Hamilton would lose the points he earned in that race and would have fewer points than Massa in the season, making the Brazilian the world champion.

While this sounds too good to be true, it is hard to say if it will happen in real life because the event was over fifteen years ago. If, somehow, the FIA overturns the result, there might also be controversy over the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and it would make it a difficult time for the sport.