Ecclestone says Massa is right to sue in English court

LONDON : Former Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone said on Tuesday Felipe Massa was right to take his fight to be recognised as the 2008 world champion to the London High Court.

Lawyers for the Brazilian former Ferrari driver announced on Monday legal action against Formula One Management (FOM), the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) and Ecclestone.

The 42-year-old is also claiming compensation for estimated financial losses of around 64 million pounds ($82 million) plus interest for missing out on the title by a single point to Britain's Lewis Hamilton.

Ecclestone told Reuters by telephone from Brazil that, had he been Massa's manager he would have advised him to take action in England.

"The best thing he could do is sue in England. He wants something straightforward so it will be straightforward. No axe to grind from anybody. So we’ll wait and see," said the 93-year-old Briton.

"It might help him if an English judge comes out and says something that’s in his favour, it would be good for him."

Ecclestone has plenty of experience of the British legal system, most recently last October when he paid 652.6 million pounds but was spared a jail term after pleading guilty to misleading Britain's tax authority about overseas assets.

In 2014 he won a High Court case brought against him by German media company Constantin Medien who had sought $100 million in damages following the sale of a stake in the sport eight years earlier.

That same year he paid $100 million to end a bribery trial in Germany.

Massa's claim has made much of an Ecclestone quote to the German website F1 Insider stating that the Brazilian should have been world champion in 2008 and was "deprived of the title he deserved" by a Singapore Grand Prix