F1 2023 news LIVE: Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 title in the spotlight after incredible turn of events and Ferrari reaction

Felipe Massa has sensationally revealed he is looking into legal options to overturn the result of the 2008 Formula 1 World Championship – won by Lewis Hamilton.

Yet new remarks, by former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, on that year’s infamous ‘Crashgate’ scandal in Singapore has encouraged Massa to assess all his potential options as to whether the Championship result could be overturned, 15 years on.

Massa, now 41, stated: “I intend to study the situation, study what the laws say and the rules. We have to have an idea of what is possible to do.”

Lewis Hamilton was in a state of disbelief after a group of fans climbed the perimeter fence and forged a way onto the circuit before the end of Sunday’s chaotic Australian Grand Prix.

A hectic and entertaining race, won by Max Verstappen, saw an F1 record of three red flags thrown and carnage ensue at the end of the race, with fans climbing the perimeter fencing and a group making their way inside the fence too as fast-moving cars sped past them on the circuit.

Hamilton, who finished second, made the point to his race engineer Peter Bonnington: “There’s people on the track, man, some fans have got on.”

Some of the 131,000 supporters at the Albert Park Circuit even reached Nico Hulkenberg’s abandoned Haas at the exit to turn two, after the German had a failure after the chequered flag.

The FIA, F1’s governing body, said that “security measures and the protocols which were expected to be in place for the event were not enforced resulting in an unsafe environment for the spectators, drivers and race officials”.

2) Aston Martin – 65 points

Carlos Sainz was fuming after finishing out of the points at the Australian Grand Prix, describing a late punishment as the “most unfair penalty I’ve seen in my life.”

At the end of a crazy race in Melbourne, Sainz was given a five-second penalty for a collision with Fernando Alonso after the third red flag was thrown.

Yet with the remaining cars taking the chequered flag behind the safety car, it meant Sainz dropped from fourth on the leaderboard down to 12^th, out of the points, and last out of all the finished cars.

When told of the penalty over team radio, Sainz was incandescent: “No, it cannot be!

“Why is this me out of the points. No it’s unacceptable. They need to wait until the race is finished. No!”

Comment by Kieran Jackson

Surely, the irony was not lost on some. An absorbing, highly-charged grand prix weekend down under started with bickering over the future of the Formula 1 race weekend. So much so in fact, amid a potential change of the sprint weekend structure, that reigning world champion Max Verstappen threatened to walk away from the sport.

By Sunday evening, with the race result finally confirmed just past 11pm in Melbourne, driver debate had turned to the throwing of red flags and the FIA’s justification for such actions. Three red flags were thrown in an action-packed race: an F1 record.

And who was present looking on, returning to the paddock for the first time since that day? That’s right, Michael Masi: the highly-criticised Australian at the helm for the Abu Dhabi controversy which concluded the 2021 season.

Masi was present at Albert Park in his new role as the chairman of the Australian Supercars series yet was spotted embracing, among others, Red Bull sporting director Jonathan Wheatley on Thursday. Needless to say, any welcome was not so warm at Mercedes.

Since that bungling of the safety car procedure, which resulted in Verstappen winning his first World Championship and Lewis Hamilton missing out on a record-breaking eighth crown, F1 has found itself in a wrangle.

But spectator Will Sweet, 31, said he was fortunate to avoid a “horrendous” injury and called on Formula One and its governing body, the FIA, to make sure it does not happen again.

George Russell claims Red Bull can go even faster than their current pace shows – but are “holding back” to avoid Formula 1 changing the rules to disadvantage them.

Red Bull, who cruised to the Driver and Constructor titles last year, have won the first three races this year, with Max Verstappen victorious in Bahrain and Australia while Sergio Perez was top of the podium in Saudi Arabia.

On Sunday in Melbourne, pole-sitter Verstappen dropped to third after Russell and Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton overtook him on lap one.

But Verstappen stormed back into first and built a nine-second advantage, with only a late red flag compromising his comfortable victory – though he did in the end keep hold of first place amid late chaos at Albert Park.

Yet Russell, who retired from the Australian GP due to a power unit failure, believes Red Bull are actually “embarrassed to show their full potential” in case F1 change the rules to help the other nine teams.

“For sure they’re holding back,” Russell told the BBC’s Chequered Flag podcast.

1) Max Verstappen – 69 points

2) Sergio Perez – 54 points

3) Fernando Alonso – 45 points

4) Lewis Hamilton – 38 points

5) Carlos Sainz – 20 points

6) Lance Stroll – 18 points

7) George Russell – 18 points

8) Lando Norris – 8 points

9) Nico Hulkenberg – 6 points

10) Charles Leclerc – 6 points

11) Valtteri Bottas – 4 points

12) Esteban Ocon – 4 points

13) Oscar Piastri – 4 points

14) Pierre Gasly – 4 points

15) Zhou Guanyu – 2 points

16) Yuki Tsunoda – 1 point

17) Kevin Magnussen – 1 point

19) Logan Sargeant – 0 points

20) Nyck de Vries – 0 points

Verstappen was quick to express his unhappiness with the move over team radio, insisting he was “ahead at the apex” and the Brit “pushed him off track.”

The Dutchman eventually propelled past Hamilton anyhow, and took the chequered flag in first place despite a hectic finale, but still voiced his displeasure at the incident after the race.

“From my side, I just tried to avoid contact,” he said. “It’s quite clear in the rules what you’re allowed to do on the outside, but clearly it’s not followed.”

Seven-time world champion Hamilton, who finished second for Mercedes’ first podium of the season, unsurprisingly disagreed with Verstappen’s assessment of the incident.

“I thought [the move] was pretty decent,” Hamilton told the media in Melbourne afterwards.

“He braked early and I braked late and I was fully up the inside and I think we both left space for each other. I didn’t run him off the road and he didn’t turn in on me. So we didn’t touch and that’s racing.”

Starting second on the grid, the British driver launched past Max Verstappen to take the lead of the race, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton also squeezing past the Red Bull driver to take second.

An early crash for Alex Albon resulted in Russell pitting, before a red flag meant the 25-year-old dropped down to seventh for no advantage as the rest of the field changed tyres in the pit lane.

Russell recovered to fourth when the action got going again, but a power unit failure resulted in his retirement and the 25-year-old had to speedily exit the car with the rear of his Mercedes on fire.

“When it’s not your day it’s not your day, I guess,” he told Sky F1.

“The pace has been great all weekend. Had a great qualifying, and start was great, first stint was really well managed.”

“I’d have been good thereafter. We probably could have won today, it would have been difficult for him [Verstappen] to pass with Lewis between both of us.”