Smedley backs Massa's right to appeal 2008 title outcome

Rob Smedley, Felipe Massa’s former race engineer at Ferrari, says he supports the Brazilian's right to being a legal case disputing the controversial outcome of the 2008 world championship.

However, Smedley added that he was taking no view either way over what the outcome will or should be, and expressed concern over what sort of precedent it may set for other sport championships in the future.

Massa's legal case hinges on an incident that took place in that year's Singapore Grand Prix, in which Renault driver Nelson Piquet Jr deliberately crashed on lap 14 to being out a safety car.

That helped Piquet's then-team mate Fernando Alonso win the race. Massa had been leading the race up to that point but finished out of the points after an issue with the fuel rig during his pit stop.

The net change in the championship points culminated with Lewis Hamilton beating Massa in the final standings by just one point. The matter was declared closed and beyond appeal at the end of the season.

• Read also: Todt agrees with Massa that 2008 Singapore GP was ‘rigged’

But recent comments by then-F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone have reopened the case by suggesting the FIA had been aware of Renault's deception, and should have investigated but chose not to “to protect the sport and save it from a huge scandal.”

Massa is seeking to have the Singapore race declared invalid and the points retallied, which would make him world champion in place of Hamilton.

“I’ve always been a person that, whatever happened yesterday, whether it was good or bad, I get up and dust myself off and move on," Smedley told the latest edition of The Race podcast this week.

“More pots and pans, more medals whatever you want to call it, is fairly meaningless for me. I’m interested in what’s happening today and tomorrow and the day after that. But that’s my personal opinion.

“Everybody should have their personal right to pursue whatever they feel is just. That’s the case with Felipe here," he continued. "It’s no secret that Felipe is a really good pal of mine, he’s like a little brother to me.

"This is something that he feels strongly and passionately about, and when he talks about it he’s very compelling and convincing in the fact that he’s doing this for what he feels is justice.”

“There’s a lot of different parties involved, " he noted. "Where this will end I’ve got no idea. I keep a watching brief on it, that’s all I can or want to do.

"If it does get flipped, what does that open up at that point in terms of sporting decisions, not only in Formula 1, but in the past?

“That’s not to say that’s right and wrong, I’m not trying to fall on either side of the fence," he insisted. If there is a decision [in Massa's favour] it will be very interesting in general how sport deals with past unjust decisions.”

Smedley added that even at the time it was clear to everyone in the paddock what had just happened in the original 2008 incident that became known within the sport as 'Crashgate'.

“I was watching it thinking, ‘Strange’. Then you see the replays, and by the third replay you’re like, ‘Okay, I understand what’s happened now.’"

“It’s fairly simple to work out. It was obvious straight after what had happened," he acknowledged. “I don’t think there was anyone with any element of doubt, especially within my close circle, within Ferrari.

"Within the guys I would have talked to in the paddock, we’d have said: ‘Yeah, that’s pretty clear what happened there.’”

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter