Massa was not involved in the incident but was undoubtedly collateral damage. Massa claimed pole position and was leading the race when Piquet binned his car. Naturally, Ferrari called him into the pits, but the pit crew struggled to get the fuelling system to disengage.
As a result, Massa dropped down and finished in 13th place, opening a seven-point gap between himself and Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton would go on to win his first world championship that year by one point. If it weren’t for Crashgate, Massa would have had a one-point lead over Hamilton. But it happened, and now Hamilton is a seven-time world champion.
“Simply put, Mr. Massa is the rightful 2008 Driver’s Champion, and F1 and FIA deliberately ignored the misconduct that cheated him out of that title,” reads a letter Massa’s lawyer sent to F1 and the FIA.
Massa claims that F1 and the FIA suspected Renault of cheating on the same day it happened, but they did nothing.