It would not be fair to take away Lewis Hamilton's first world championship title, Russian Formula 1 commentator Alexey Popov insists.

This week, Felipe Massa followed through with his threat to take legal action against F1, the FIA and even Bernie Ecclestone, over the disputed outcome of the 2008 world championship.

Massa claims Renault's orchestration of a deliberate crash for Nelson Piquet jr in that season's Singapore GP robbed him of at least one vital point that would have crowned him world champion rather than Hamilton.

"We can say that Felipe is right in some ways," Popov said. "But on the other hand, trying to regain the title now, more than 15 years later, is strange."

In 2008, Massa raced for Ferrari, while his title rival Hamilton was a McLaren driver.

"If Hamilton's team had rigged it, it could have been said that they become champions dishonestly," Popov explained. "Therefore you could say that they should be stripped of the title.

"But since they were a third party, I'm not so sure."