Ex-Ferrari boss Todt backs Massa: 'GP Singapore had to be scrapped'

Felipe Massa can count on the support of former Ferrari team boss Jean Todt in his legal battle for the 2008 world title. Todt, who later became president of the FIA, does not want to get too deep into the case but agrees with Massa on one crucial point.

Massa has launched legal proceedings because he disagrees with the conduct of the 2008 Formula 1 season. In it, he lost the world title to Lewis Hamilton at the very last moment. The case centres on Crashgate, in which Nelson Piquet Jr. was instructed by Renault boss Flavio Briatore to deliberately crash Fernando Alonso to win the Singapore Grand Prix.

Statements by former F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone prompted Massa to take legal action after 15 years. The 93-year-old Briton, who now claims to have no memory of the statements, claimed that everyone knew about the cheating, right up to the highest level of the organisation.

Todt fully agrees with Massa that the result of the Singapore GP should have been declared invalid. "I won't go into the controversy. For him, it was very difficult psychologically. Maybe we could have been stricter when the story came out. There is no doubt that the Singapore Grand Prix was rigged and should have been scrapped," Todt said to La Stampa.