Felipe Massa is preparing to "disgrace himself" by launching legal action against Formula 1.

That is the view of well-known Russian F1 commentator Alexey Popov, after it emerged that Massa's lawyers have now warned the sport and its governing FIA that he is pursuing them over the outcome of the 2008 world championship.

The Brazilian alleges that F1 knew about the 'crashgate' saga before the end of the 2008 season, meaning he - and not Lewis Hamilton - should arguably have won that championship.

But Popov said: "It seems to me that no one is going to meet him halfway on this one. He's just going to disgrace himself in the eyes of the fans all these years later.

"I don't really understand Felipe on this. I've always liked him, but in this situation I don't understand what he's trying to prove. It's quite clear that undoing everything now is basically impossible," he added. body check tags ::