I have had some further thoughts on. the Massa "I was robbed (of the 2008 WDC) thing.
I made the following comment previously that much of Massa's case is based on comments from 2 people. Bernie and Todt.
....It seems BE's words regarding the rightful champion...... "Due to this, it is his (BE's) belief that Felipe Massa should have been the F1 Driver's World Champion in 2008 and not Lewis Hamilton." That is what sparked Massa off on this journey he is now on.
I also dismissed Todt's input as lacking credibility..... comments made after he had any official standing in the FIA and flawed by personal relationships.
The only person to have ever said the race should have been nullified was Jean Todt, long after he had retired from hiis position of FIA President.
That Todt claim in itself suffers it's own lack of credibility. Other than not being said whilst he was in office, let us not forget Jean Todt's son Nicholas was Felipe Massa's Personal Manager throughout his career. This Todt association was seen as influential throughout Massa's career.... especially when he joined Sauber, who utuilised th Petronas (ie Ferrari) engine.
My point is Jean Todt's dealings and belief in Massa was shown to have been influenced by his son managing Felipe.
So we are down to the credible evidence being Bernie, now well into his nineties, based on conversations he allegedly had with two people (Mosely and Whiting) who are long dead (so no confirmation or denial possible from them) that were held 15 years ago.
Doing a bit of reading and, given that Bernie has never been shy about stirring the pot and 'enhancing' stories to suit his agenda
I found it interesting to read of how much Bernie and Lewis were at Loggerheads in the years of Bernie being King of the Castle (pre Liberty)
In a nutshell, Lewis, an avid user of social media from way back had very different views on its use to Bernie, an equally avid opponent of social media. Yes Bernie was certainly blinded by the fact we never had it and look where we got to. we dont need it position, a position that we all know was wrong.
Whilst I was always aware of there were issues between them and that any friendship they showed in public was a sugar coating for the media,. Bernie was glad of the attention Lewis brought to F1, the increased TV rating etc. But privately there was little love. I was never aware of how many things went on unknown to me..... the culmination of years of brewing animosity between the pair.
Lewis challenged Bernie on his social media values, Bernie had become a bit sensitive to Lewis being in effect the first driver to publicly challenge the way Bernie ran the show.....nothing new there. New kid on the block with an unprecidented. and more modern fan base, weird wardrobe, strange music tastes (to a man of Bernie age) Lewis says what he wants etc. He challenged Bernie’s refusal to embrace the emerging power of social media. A new boy in town challenging the mighty Bernie, the man who had (with help) made F1 into the moneyspinner it had become
No one crossed Bernie in those days and Lewis was sailing close to the wind.
News to me was that in this period Bernie sent Lewis a stack of legal cease-and-desist letters from Formula One Management for posting their FOM copyrighted footage on his feeds.
Lewis of course continued the use of FOM material unabated. Bernie, or FOM (pretty much Bernie and a handful of assistants then) kept sending out the C&D's.
It only stopped when Liberty took over control from Bernie and gave him the Chairman Emeritus label. Basically a job with no responsibility or real function. Lewis openly spoke of his satisfaction that Bernie was gone and had no control. Hamilton didn’t disguise his satisfaction.
“I’m glad that Liberty has come in because I’m not quite sure if Bernie was here they would have made any changes,” he said in 2019.
“They still wouldn’t have social media because he thought it was useless and it’s just not important, all these different things.”
I recall also after Bernie said something controversial and non related to Lewis that Lewis went public and basically said something along the lines of Bernie being just an old out of touch geriatric and he also urged the world not to listen to old farts like Bernie. Just another incident that confirms the lack of mutual appreciation between the to, and indeed good reasoning for 'the old fart' to say something that would be upsetting to Lewis.
I think the legal term would be Bernie had "Motive".
Im sure a good legal team would tear apart any claim by Massa based on in effect flawed evidence on the basis of statements from two people with their own agendas that came out suggesting Lewis was not the real champion. On the Lewis side he has a champion that was declared and is now irrevocable on the basis of the FIA statutes in place to this day..... that of it being set in concrete after the prize giving award.
In summary:
A 90 + year old man known to, lets say, be mischievous, and with a record of saying controversial things to stir the pot. A man with an agenda and quantified long standing troubled relationship with Lewis. Based on a conversation Bernie had with two people now deceased. A man who can, in the dock stand there and credibly say im 90 whatever years old... I cant remember.
That the timing of Bernie's claim of knowledge became public so soon after Lewis makes a public statement in effect saying thank God Bernie is no longer involved..... What better excuse could Bernie have had for saying something against Lewis based on a conversation with no living witnesses..
The only possible winners here are the high profile and very expensive lawyers on both sides.