Massa says “I’m not doing this for money” ahead of awkward Hamilton reunion

Massa was already celebrating in 2008, thinking he had clinched the title, when he was pipped by a young Hamilton who was then driving for McLaren.

The addition of the ‘crashgate’ scandal has enabled Massa to seek to reverse results from 15 years ago.

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‘Crashgate’ saw Renault’s Nelson Piquet Jr intentionally crash at the Singapore Grand Prix, for which he was later punished. The knock-on effect was that Ferrari botched Massa’s pitstop, costing him points in the title chase. 

Bernie Ecclestone, then-F1 supremo, has since claimed that senior officials knew about Piquet Jr’s intentional crash.

"I think the first thing when Bernie's comment [came out] I was really, really surprised, for those comments,” Massa told RacingNews365 from the F1 Miami Grand Prix, where he could awkwardly reunite with Hamilton.

“Because everybody knows what's happened in the race, everything came out in 2009.

"We hear after that also that Charlie [Whiting] knew and Max [Mosley], so for me it's the injustice for the sport. 

“It shows that maybe every decision on the legal side, everything that happens, it was not correct on that situation. 

“So I took the decision to study on the legal side everything that happened.

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"I'm not doing this for money. I'm not doing this for anything. 

“Because it's not what I aim to, but I'm doing this for the justice. 

“Not only for me, but for my friends, my country, my family, Ferrari and Ferrari fans, so in the end there are so many things.

"You know what a championship does for a country? You can develop the country, we don't have Brazilian drivers now racing as well, so there are so many things.

"This is racing, everything that went wrong is part of the game. When you have a problem in the engine or when you have a mistake. 

“You cannot really say 'I was wrong because my engine broke down' No. But what happened on that race is a different situation.”