The FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has decided to move Michael Masi out of the role of F1 Race Director. He says Masi will be offered another FIA role, but whether the Australian wants to accept whatever role is on offer remains to be seen.
This is not a good precedent for the federation but obviously Ben Sulayem felt that a change would be a good thing. Some will read it as the federation giving in to pressure to find a scapegoat for what happened in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which was obviously not popular.
Ben Sulayem says he is putting in place a new system of race management with a Virtual Race Control Room away from the circuit which will try to assist the Race Director with the decision-making process. This has been likened to the Video Assistance Referee (VAR) process in football, although there is a fundamental difference because in soccer (and other sports) the action stops to allow decisions to be reviewed and suitable penalties imposed. That cannot happen in F1 unless there is a red flag – and you cannot stop the race every 10 minutes to sort out such questions. Whether this proves to be a good thing remains to be seen, as it might create more complications than it solves.
Direct communication with the race director during a race will be removed, in order to protect Race Control from pressure and allow them to take decisions peacefully. This is probably a good thing.
The new President says that unlapping procedures behind Safety Car will be reassessed by the F1 Sporting Advisory Committee and presented to the next F1 Commission. There does not seem to be any plan to change the Safety Car rules as a whole, which means that drivers will still lose any advantage they have gained and will still be vulnerable to the kind of problems that befell Lewis Hamilton and cost him the World Championship in Abu Dhabi.
The FIA says that Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas will act alternatively as Race Director, assisted by the veteran Herbie Blash, who will be a permanent senior advisor. Both Wittich and Freitas are experienced, but whether this will help the consistency of decision-making remains to be seen, as two Race Directors will inevitably have different ways of dealing with incidents.
Thus, there are dangers inherent in the new structure announced.
This will, however, stop the unpleasantness that has been going on within the sport after what happened in Abu Dhabi and will give the FIA the opportunity to concentrate on other pressing matters.
There is a real need for the new engine F1 regulations for 2026.
It is also going to be necessary for the federation to face up to the reality that the Dakar Rally was the target of a bomb attack in Jeddah in December. The FIA must therefore address the question of whether it was the right decision by the rally organiser and the Saudi government to go ahead with the event, saying that it was not clear that there had been a bomb, which was the line the FIA took at the time.
From the start, it was clear that those involved had no doubt at all that there had been a bomb, rather than a problem with the car.
The French government was not satifisfied with the response of the Saudis and the racing authorities and decided to launch its own judicial investigation (because the target was French) and an official report is expected soon, following a visit to Jeddah by French investigators and police, including forensic experts.
The French media is reporting that the investigators have concluded that the only possible explanation for the blast was an explosive device – and that will inevitably raise questions about the safety of all international motorsport events in Saudi Arabia (including the upcoming Grand Prix) and whether the rally should have been called off, and indeed why it was not.
joeblogsf1 
I’m guessing the removal of Masi was the deal-breaker required by Mercedes and Lewis? What are your thoughts on that aspect?
I hope not. If it was then the FIA needs a new president.
I hope not too, but it wouldn’t surprise me…
I doubt it. Mainly because I think that Lewis Hamilton never seriously thought about leaving F1. In my opinion the whole drama-queenery about will-he-won’t-he was just a way to stay in the news.
I don’t think it’s a question of scapegoating anyone, more a response to the terrible decisions taken last year, not just at Abu Dhabi but at Spa too among others. After all Masi going will be pretty cold comfort to Sir Lewis.
The Safety Car rules do penalise whoever is in the lead but the main problem in Abu Dhabi was not the Safety Car rules themselves but the fact that the rules were not applied. That’s all Masi needed to do, apply the published rules. Yes, the race would have effectively finished under the Safety Car but that would have been better than what did happen. The way to avoid that would have been to red flag the race, but Masi didn’t do that.
Well said, Sir
The reason the race wasn’t red flagged was that it was expected that the mess was cleared within two laps as the marshalls told Masi. The reason it took longer was, as I have read, the brakes caught fire and the marshalls had to get fire extinguishers to put that out and also remove the residue from the extinguishers from the track. By that time it was too late to red flag the race as there was no time to restart. So the only sensible option to have a race (as the teams have agreed before the season, as far as I know) to either not unlap the cars, or unlap only a few which was what happened.
This is really interesting thanks Gerry, I wasn’t aware of the brakes situation. Gives further credence to the view this was a system and process problem (rather than an individual), where conflicting priorities were being managed by one person under absurd pressure.
As someone in the small minority of people who are completely indifferent to both Verstappen and Hamilton, I have a somewhat different take.
For starters, it were the teams themselves who have pushed for a long time to end races under green whenever possible. Masi’s decision as it was made was the only way to achieve that. He was in a lose-lose situation. He basically had a choice which fanbase would be demanding his head on a spike.
As for letting the lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen through, I would suggest he might have had safety at the back of his mind. A completely red-misted Verstappen trying to lap cars with a crowbar on his way to catch the ailing Merc of Hamilton could have resulted in a very nasty accident.
Put those things together and it was almost the only real choice he could make. Letting the title decider fizzle out under yellow would have been just as bad. It was a proper Kobayashi-Maru scenario for Masi – whatever he decided he would have lost out anyway.
Well I guess now we know why ‘He’ decided to ‘come back’.
Nothing the FIA president has done since his election seemed particularly wise to me, and this only adds to this list.
I suspect this decision will not be looked upon fondly in the years to come.
FIA was in an untenable position (and still is) regarding Masi’s actions and the driver’s championship. Safety cars are always unfair to someone but at least the rules should be consistently and predictably applied. I sincerely hope the new structure and new race directors will “clear the air” and allow everyone to move forward and focus on the new cars and an exciting new season. I look forward to seeing if the VAR mechanism is practical in the real world… As always, much to look forward to this year.
Perhaps it’s unintended consequence of history at play. In 1994, the Japanese GP was a two race race, with Damon Hill having to manage an unseen gap.
Over the lake in Clintonville their premier open wheel championship had a system that worked in a 3 make (maybe 2 by then) championship where the yellow flag neutralised the race with closed pits, but allowed some quick thinking to give advantage from time to time and as 2022 Daytona 24 hour Grand Marshall, Mario Andretti is on record saying over the season they balance out
F1 adopted a system that worked then in a different championship where you can be winner one weekend and loser the next, and win the next from the back by a yellow. F1 has been 2 by 2 really when equal team mates since the 1994 debacle
The safety car in F1 is imperfect, but the VSC does not tick the safety box, in my view wrongly to be the best way to neutralising a race and still allowing the small advantages of a faster pit stop.
In realville, the moment Hamiltob passed the pit lane entrance after Latiffi crashed, as long as the race went green the result was inevitable because tin can took the only strategic advany open to them. If we replay and Hamilton stopped and Verstappen didn’t we probably have the same result. Hamilton would have won from 2nd at the restart. The rules allowed that a lapped cars in this situation are just noise
“there was nothing fundamentally wrong with what the Race Director did”
Seems you were wrong then, and you’re wrong now.
What is right and what is wrong? The announcement means that the FIA President has a different opinion, that is all. Time will tell if his decisions (and the thinking behind it) are wise or not. I offer my opinions to fans for free. If you choose not to accept them, I can contain my disappointment. If you don’t like what you read, you can go elsewhere and find something that suits you better, where you can attack everyone at will hiding behind a false name.
On a basic level –
The word “right” comes from the Latin word “rectus” which means “straight” or “right” and came to the English language through the Old English word “riht” which means “just, fair, proper, or good.”
The word “wrong,” on the other hand, comes from the Latin word “pravus” which means “crooked.” It developed its use to connote a bad, immoral, or unjust behavior in the 1300s.
I didn’t attack you, and the only personal comment was from the poster below (Vi Hermens) who I didn’t make any comment towards. Yet felt the need to comment on my username with a personal assessment. Based on the vitriol posted on here by some, using a pseudonym seemed prudent.
More than happy to give you my real name and discuss anything you like. I like discussion with people that have a different point of view, can you say the same?
Did I say you attacked me? You simply said I was wrong, to which I defended myself and replied that there is no right nor wrong in this matter. Ben Sulayem made some decisions that may be good – but may not be good. I don’t get what the Latin lessons add to the discussion, but as you are an expert you can probably answer the question that I have: is “rectus” linked etymologically with “rectum”?
Did I miss something in your comment –
“If you don’t like what you read, you can go elsewhere and find something that suits you better, where you can attack everyone at will hiding behind a false name.” Because I’m fairly sure I understood the context. If however that truly wasn’t your meaning then I apologise sincerely?
As for the Latin it wasn’t a lesson, merely a response to the question of what is right and wrong. I suspect further usage from a single comment would undoubtably spawn “ex uno plures” all of which would be ultimately pointless. I would have thought many people throughout history have etymologically (or otherwise) linked “straight with rectum”. Alas I have not experience in this field. You ?
Cannot help you in this respect.
“The word “wrong,” on the other hand, comes from the Latin word “pravus” It absolutely does not, where did you get this idea? It comes from ultimately Proto-Germanic *wrangaz
in this case, the name does make the man
What a mess !
It is inevitable that we shall all conclude that pressure from Wolff and Hamilton has led to this regrettable decision. I never took to Bernie but he would never have countenanced such an outcome, we can now look forward to more such blackmail.
As for 2 for the price of 1 why not have a b***** committee and have a camel instead of a horse. Masi is well out of it.
We have just enjoyed a stunning season and no doubt spectator numbers will climb as a consequence but the future does not otherwise look good.
I’m not entirely sure that we’ll all conclude that it was pressure from Wolff and Hamilton. There’s the possibility that some pressure came from Liberty. Lewis has an unbelievably large fan base and there were a large number of those who post on fora in other less err… journalistic places than this to the effect that they were never going to watch F1 again. I can’t imagine that LIberty would like the idea of a large number of diehard fans deserting the sport.
It’s abundantly clear the Michael has been scapegoated – they could have just bought back Herbie, put a second person in the back office to read the rules and give Michael sage advice at the appropriate time. Agree a decent set of rules with the drivers about what is acceptable conduct and all would be well with the world.
The fact of the matter is that probably 50% of those watching/listening were ‘annoyed’ by what happened in the final few laps at Abu Dhabi and so heads had to be seen to be rolled.
Now that the lynchmob have got their head, I wonder what these same people will whine about next when their favourite is supposedly ill-treated? Joe, I have been a F1 fan for nearly 50 years but this makes me so sick, I have never seen this lousy treatment of other human beings in my life except on the trading floor.
Linch mob, or just very public consequences for a job done badly over the season? A very public role, so I feel sorry for that side for him.
I think The Masi demotion was expected and really Abu Dhabi just made it all the more urgent. Last season there had been a litany of decisions, big and small, that left the F1 fans and the teams and drivers (more crucially), dumbfounded by the lack of consistency and clarity of vision under his direction.
The present solution gives me no assurance it will be much better, regardless of those involved. As an american would say “If you have 2 quarterbacks, then you have no quarterback.”
What the FIA needed to present to teams and fans was a clearer definition of the role of the Race Director and what it entails, and, arguably splitting it’s responsabilities to more people that answer to the RD.
It’s harsh on a man to lose his job so publicly, but regardless of what anyone’s opinion on Abu Dhabi was, he also made numerous mistakes during the year, even if some were regulation related and his hands tied.
Spa was a farce, the inconsistent application of forcing other drivers off rulings, not having Max penalised for brake testing (ok it needed telemetry afterwards, but wow that’s a black flag and DSQ any other motorsport), a minor rap on the knuckles for Lewis at Silverstone for letting max choose to crash or not (came from his wish washy response to Max getting away with a lot earlier in the season, and only option left open to Hamilton to show he wouldn’t be pushed around. Sorry, Masi was woefully inconsistent, and the end of year problems stemmed from him not being strong enough earlier on the year.
Sounds like the safety car will clarify the lapped car rules, but it needs its unfairness addressed in my eyes too. The F1 survey showed fans overwhelmingly wanted racing above the show, and a lack of fakeness. Problem is probably that younger fans want for randomness to spice things up, and they’re the future and the money spenders?
“Sorry, Masi was woefully inconsistent, and the end of year problems stemmed from him not being strong enough earlier on the year.”
It goes beyond 2021. Canada and Austria 2019 happened on Masi’s watch, as did Q2 in Turkey 2020 where the track went green with a tractor still on it. Belgium was disastrous in term of decision making too, especially in qualifying (Masi was very lucky that Lando Norris was very lucky).
I think Masi was a weak referee, and that’s why the likes of Horner, Wheatley and Wolff were so happy to bully him.
I do blame the FIA for not putting a stop to the nastiness sooner though. In any other sport, Horner in particular would have been charged with bringing the sport into disrepute for many of his comments in 2021.
No different to Donald Trump or John Major or Gordon Brown etc losing their jobs in public.
It’s the sad and unintended consequence of being in the public eye.
We as race fans make up our opinion based on what we see and those that can be bothered to read by fair impartial reporting. While I still believe Masi did not do a great job in Adu Dhabi, if what is said about the fire extinguisher is correct, then it’s a mitigating factor in his favour. Because the flow of information from those underneath him is not public knowledge, we make decision based on sketchy facts. To protect him from unfair criticism perhaps the FIA should have post race (and I mean the other controversial decisions) and at Abu Dhabi given the reasons decisions were made with some context from the person feeding up.
I have had to re-evaluate my stance, because as soon as it happened I said Red Flag, 7 or 8 lap race for the championship. But if the post earlier is right and there was a further event that took place that elongated the SC period, Masi was acting on initial reports that is was going to be quick to clear, but then it took on unintended consequences. I still think red flagged was the fairest decision, but it was not made and then it was all about getting the race to green.
As for the changes, when Stewart became Jaguar they tried to run it by committee and look what happened. This new system takes a system that worked imperfectly (like human beings) and now made it worse. We cannot go back to the days where each race had a race with a Clerk of the Course from that Federation, in my opinion, it was below race director that has been shown to be the problem, but that has not been addressed.
The 3 that you mention lost their “jobs” as a result of a democratic vote by many millions, not I think quite the same.
One of the many reasons that we appreciate and follow Joe is that he is privy to most of the information that is abroad in F1. He shares most of this with us, the less well informed, and also gives us the benefit of his interpretation based on both this information, some of which may have been given in confidence, and his very lengthy experience. He doesn’t, in my experience, demand that we follow his judgement absolutely just that we treat his opinion and his blog with respect.
As others have said there are some of Joe’s opinions with which I disagree but when I feel profoundly differently about something that he quite obviously feels profoundly about I back off. That, I believe, is polite and sensible. I am very old (well quite ancient), come from an era of different perspectives, grew up amongst pilot survivors of WW2, have lived all over but not everywhere, have designed, built and raced cars (and boats and buildings but not yet flying things) when drivers were badly hurt, or worse, far too regularly. It is inevitable that I don’t think quite the same about things as newer arrivals with different experience. None of that makes me right and others wrong (rectus/um !)
Please everyone be nice it ain’t that difficult.
Dominic Cummings, Alistair Campbell, Ron Dennis, Tony Brown, Richard Keys, Teresa May, Margaret Thatcher, Alain Prost. The names were not mutually exclusive but to give context that anyone fired (resigned), forced out etc, when you in the public eye it’s brutal for the person.
And perhaps it shows a measure of the person how they deal with it, Trump was true to form for example.
Dear Mr Piers,
Thank you for your kind observations and comments concerning our Dear Joe.
“Freedom is the right to think differently”. (Rosa Luxembourg)
Best greetings, JB
Prego, plaisir, bitter.
I don’t really see how Masi could have stayed after effectively deciding who won the title. Does this now diminish Verstappen’s maiden title? There will always be a question mark on whether Verstappen won the title or was given it by the FIA.
Masi did not decide who won the title
Deciding who won the title is exactly what he did!!
What other possible outcome could there have been after he chose to only let those lapped cars through that were between VER and HAM?
HAM on old tyres and VER on nice new ones? It was a no-brainer!!
If Masi had have let all cars through, VER would have had to think about SAI attacking him for 2nd place as well as attacking HAM for the lead – he might still have won but it would have been on merit rather than ‘awarded’.
Equally, if he’d let none through (as per his original radio message) VER might still have won – but again it would have been on merit rather than ‘awarded’.
Whilst I’m pleased that the FIA seems to have finally joined the real world in holding it’s people to account when they mess up, I fear you’re correct in your thinking that naming two alternating RDs will only make the matter of inconsistency worse than ever!!
?
It was a strategic decision that won or lost the championship because Hamilton could have stopped. Masi’s decision making only affected the result in that Red Bull with nothing to do rolled the dice and Mercedes did not.
It’s easy to make this decision after the race, but I think Mercedes lost Hamilton by getting him to stay out because if the race went to green before the end he was always going to be beaten because if his tyres. If he ceeded track position and Red Bull chose not to stop then he would have done to Verstappen what he did. And if they both stopped and it was Boomtown Rats, sorry Stus Quo then I believe Hamilton would have won.
Masi did not do a great job on this incident (even with now apparent mitigating reasons for decisions. It was the pit walls who decided who won and lost.
I do feel sorry for Michael Masi. I think he was thrown in the deep end after Charlie Whiting’s death and it’s a real shame that experienced heads like Herbie Blash weren’t around to help Michael bed in. I do think he got pretty much all the big calls wrong throughout his time in F1- events in Canada and Austria in 2019 were both as unedifying as anything in 2021- although I respect others’ opinions who think otherwise.
Without rehashing the arguments around Michael’s decision-making, I genuinely think his position was untenable.
For all the flack Wolff’s received after Abu Dhabi, plenty of it fair, the behaviour of Jonathan Wheatley and Christian Horner has consistently been worse. Horner’s TV interview comments in Jeddah about the race director’s “souk” should have seen a charge of bringing the sport into disrepute; in any other sport it would have done. The FIA should take a share of blame for not putting a stop to the nastiness long ago.
But the fact they didn’t has left his position untenable. If Masi stays in post and finds against Red Bull then Wheatley, Horner and Marko will go nuclear about bias. If he stays in post and finds against Mercedes then likewise. Martin Brundle was right: regardless of the rights and wrongs of Masi’s decision making, there’s no way he could have stayed in post.
Two race directors alternating is a recipe for disaster though…
2019, Vettel went off and deliberately squeezed Hamilton as I remember. Result seemed fair in the end.
Austria 2019 I just remember rules being redrawn after, and seemed to move goalposts too far to being able to force drivers off. Still think it’s fine on the exit if not fully alongside, but between apex and exit that’s just barging and doesn’t take a lot of skill.
absolutely shocking treatment of Masi. he did the right thing, he kept them racing. and now, it’s a total mess – multiple directors, diverging schools of thought, differing approaches: won’t be great for racing but will certainly be good for TV.
I get the impression that Michael Masi is a smarter fellow than this new FIA president Mr. Ben Sulayem.
Even it is not a giving in to blackmail, it sure smells like it. Now let us see what this twinset Wittich/Freitas
will make of it. If they mess up Mr. Blash will have to use his broomstick and pollish-machine to clean things up. They will make mistakes the question will be how big they are. There comes a time that all the blamers will scratch their heads and ask themselves if they had not better stayed with NO MICHAEL.
Don’t agree with the decision. I think the decision was done more to stop the noise prior to the start of the 1st race. FIA just didn’t want to hear about it anymore.
The simplest solution would be for any race event happening in the last five laps immediately to trigger a red flag. The race stops, debris is cleared and then the cars go racing again.
Quite simple really – avoiding the ‘oops we are running out of time behind the safety car’ pressure.
But if the incident does not warrant a red flag?
Then VSC Joe
It was, but it required a full safety car.
If the priority is ‘to be racing at the chequered flag’ there needs to be a clean stop to allow a clean restart.
So yes, red flag any flaggable incident in the last five laps. Doesn’t NASCAR do that currently?
Glad to see Eduardo Freitas involved he does commands a lot of respect and does a good job in the WEC
when F1 decided to follow Nascar and stop the races when a leaf fell on the track it was inevitable that things would fall apart. so many of the results feel artificial and orchestrated
I think Mr. Masi made a genuine mistake under huge pressure. Mistakes happen. Sadly it was a corker.
The bigger problem for me was the circling of the wagons by the stewards right after the race. Their reasons for dismissing the MB protest were tenuous to the point of laughable. ‘Any does not mean all’. Really?
I fear Max’s title will forever be tarnished by those events. I hope he wins others.
For decades leading drivers with a big margin have cursed the Safety Car. Let it stay so.
The trouble with Hamilton was he also gambled on a fading set of tyres. That was pushing it.
How can you say he gambled on a fading set of tyres.?
You expect drivers and team strategists to have de ja vu on what’s going to happen. The team made the decision based on the probabilities around an establish set of rules. These rules weren’t applied even though Mr Masi had even said in a previous race that these rules have to be followed.
Would Max fans excepted what happened if the situation were reversed.?…….Its not even a question that needs answering.
Yup, they do it all the time, as do fighting generals, no matter how well prepared.
Whether we agree or disagree with Masi’s actions last season it was apparent he had to go, if only to remove him from further controversies going forward.
The new season will have a clean slate of race directors who will not be tainted by Masi’s past actions or lack of actions.
I am disappointed that F1 is not going to demonstrate its technical prowess by reforming the safety car rules and instead sticking with the very simplistic notion of just bunching the cars up and ruining the race.
It is a shame that a sport that prides itself on its technical prowess cannot find a solution better that an 11 year old child could invent.
Was totally onboard with you on the FIA showing weakness if they remove Massi.
From all this I expected Consistent Stewards and now we are getting the same incosistency we had with stewards in having 2 race directors..
Pretty sure if I cocked up my job as much as Masi has done over the last couple of years I’d be gone too. And I’m pretty sure the company I worked for wouldn’t be branded as weak. I suspect MB and LH did as part of there agreement to drop taking appeals further after Abu Dhabi request Masi’s removal but so would I. How could they continue racing after that with Masi still there. Anyone who thinks Masi handled the end of Abu Dhabi race correctly is absolutely deluded. It’s not a question of opinion HE DID NOT FOLLOW THE RULES THAT ARE IN A BOOK EVERYONE CAN READ AND ALL THE TEAMS USE TO DETERMINE STRATEGY. Heres an idea, I’m playing football, but the FA in the last five minutes of the game I’m winning 5-0 decide nah we’re not having these last five minutes be a boring pass it about see the game out affair, you now have 1 goalkeeper and 1 defender. The other team have an extra player. Off ya go. It was farcical. What’s worse is I don’t think Masi even knew what kind of position he was putting MB and LH in for that last lap. ‘ItS cAlLeD a MOtOr rACe’ have a day off. If he couldn’t see the advantage he was giving RB and MV then he shouldn’t be within a mile of race control. Or an F1 race. Accountability has to exist. He has been made accountable. You know why F1 has had more controversy and corruption than probably any other motorsport, money. Bunch of rich boys and there toys, power moves all over the shop. It’s the thing that makes the sport so good in many ways, but it’s the route of all its evils. Abu Dhabi was a sad day for the integrity of the sport, MV’s title forever tarnished through no fault of his own.
So I’m absolutely deluded. Thanks for your opinion.
I fail to see how having two race directors rotating instead of just having a single person solves anything. Whether you agree or disagree with how Masi handled the situation, I fail to see how this new structure makes things any better. There certainly could have been changes made to the way things were done in officiating and still allowed Masi to keep his position. He learned from the best in Charlie prior to his passing. Oh well . . . I guess we’ll see how it all works out.
I am exceedingly disappointed in actions taken as a result of this investigation.
More to the point, I’m disappointed in Ben Sulayem.
In this, he has demonstrated that he is an adequate politician, but I fear he’s also shown himself to be a dismal leader and administrator.
I’m not a member of the Masi fan club, but neither am I someone looking for his head. He made mistakes (something most of us can agree on), but given the totality of the circumstances, I can’t really blame him… At least not much.
Between Horner and Wolff screaming in his ear and receiving bad information from personnel at Latifi’s accident site for Masi to act on… Well, the end result shouldn’t be a surprise.
So Ben Sulayem throws Masi – the guy with the most experience – under the train and brings in two guys to “alternate” as race director with another guy as full time back-up. Pizza parlors have better management plans.
I lean away from the ever-present conspiracy stuff, but in this case, I’ve really got to wonder if Wolff (a party to creating this mess in the first place) and perhaps Hamilton weren’t engaged in some politics of their own.
Sad all the way around.
What a sad calamity. Ben Sulayem had an open goal.
What we needed was a detailed statement on the decisions and reasoning in the situation.
He could have endorsed Masi’s judgements and character, while also recognising the occasional, inexorable incompatibility of entertainment, sporting fairness, safety, the physical limits of time and the capacity of any single individual.
Reasonable fans understand that not all systems are perfect, despite their intent.
Reasonable fans also understand Max is a deserving champion. As would have been Lewis.
Done carefully, he could have done all this without undermining RB and Max’s success and the integrity of the WDC.
Doing so would have somewhat renewed broad trust and apoliticism in the FIA and F1, regardless of any minority or individual noses placed out of joint. Not doing so has done the opposite.
He could have done so and made the changes needed.
The FIA, like many institutions these days, fail to trust those they serve with the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant.
He could have created a clean break for the sport.
All he’s done is made a rod for his own back.
One thing I learned from years in F1 is that there is not enough time to make a good decision during a race, things are moving too fast. One made in the heat of the moment during the race is often wrong, with hindsight.
What Ross asked me to put in place when I was at Benetton was a system to come up with all the possibilities (we could think of) and have analysed what would be the best course of action if any of them happened – all depending on when they happened, of course. We had hours to do this on the Saturday evening.
It was then that we started calculating the optimum lap to stop to re-fuel rather than having a discussion on the pit wall…
That meant Ross had a piece of paper which listed the optimum course of action to take in any eventuality we had forseen.
It was sometimes a race winning strategy.
Most teams do this now.
Is there any reason the Race Direction can’t have a similar strategy?
I find it hard to believe that 2 Race Directors will be better than one who has learned from experience, even with Herbie’s help.
I am far from convinced F1 is changing in a positive way.
Welk, that sets a nice precedent for the next time a race director needs to take action against Mercedes/Toto/Lewis….
Oh dear, let’s move on. On a positive note the new cars released so far look really good, in my opinion having done away with those ugly noses. At least for now. On a less positive note, I would have liked to see the FIA make a statement about defining track limits. That’s another serious problem that has to be solved if we’re to avoid more controversy in the coming season.
Any how, lets drop 2021 and start talking about 2022, it’s looking very interesting!
On the whole, i feel that this was a fair outcome.
Like every other fan, I felt despair at how the race / championship ended last year in as much that Max’s championship is forever tarnished and Lewis was clearly wronged. However sacking Masi would not fully address the key issue. Having him responsible only for safety, which must be paramount, removes any conflict, having the new guys effectively take on the role of referee allows them to look at the big picture – hopefully the fiasco of Spa last year will not be repeated.
Its feels right that the sport can now move-on
quote – vulnerable to the kind of problems that befell Lewis Hamilton and cost him the World Championship in Abu Dhabi. I think Hamilton lost the championship because he failed to score more points in one of a dozen races prior to Abu Dhabi. The championship is the result of all races in the season, not just the last lap of the last race.
If we count the points of the first 8 races, Max is in front. Only after Silverstone and Budapest he is not anymore. Hamilton is in front for a very short period. Max retains the lead fairly quickly and extends his points-tally. He keeps the advantage for a while. Hamilton catches up for the third time in Brazil to finally come to equal points
in Jeddah with only one last race to go.
In other words, Max was world champion during 70% of the races/time. If the competition was stopped at any time early in the season the championship would have been decided in MV’s favor.
I appreciate everyone has different views but I can’t ignore that, for me;
a) It was the most exciting season since Hill/Schumacher
b) It was an edge of seat final race
c) There were two worthy contenders, but both are paid enough to cope with disappointments
d) I can’t deny Verstappen as a worthy Champion
e) Masi was a victim of unprecedented circumstances and unprecedented pressure
f) A seemingly decent man has been torn apart in front of the sporting world
g) For every ‘die-hard’ fan saying F1 is over for them I suspect there are two new ones to replace them (and we all know they keep tuning in anyway)
h) The World keeps turning and functioning regardless
Roll on the new season and be grateful Joe keeps travelling, writing and allowing comments.
On a different, but related subject – on the FIA decision making process:
If I’ve understood the new rules for the “sprints” correctly, for three events this season, the driver who is awarded “pole” will not necessarily start the main race on the front row!!!
How does that make any sense?
I think sacking Masi was necessary and right.
Necessary because he would have been a magnet for controversy and the sport would have remained in disrepute, with trust and goodwill lost, as long as he was making the inevitable marginal decisions that come so frequently.
And right because there can be no doubt that Masi knew his unprecedented and wrong, or (at best) questionable decision was going to change the world championship outcome, but he still did it. Even the Abu Dhabi race stewards did not find his unusual decision was correct, they merely ruled that if it was wrong it could not be rectified – and that was an unacceptable way to finish an eight month season and decide a world championship. How could Masi have put himself in this position – where he was knowingly intervening in the world championship fight, and only because he chose, unnecessarily, to be creative with the rules? On the final lap of a world championship decider, no less.
Very tough job, I know. But that particular decision was not tough at all. It was simple, straightforward, and one he had made correctly many times before.
Hey there Joe, thank you for the sincere insights as always. Well, the FIA have decided on consensus race direction. Maybe it’ll work, but at least it’s a visible “action taken in spirit (read: perception) of change”. Personally. I’d have been better satisfied with replacing the word “any” with the word “all” in the context of the unlapping rules, plus a provision to extend the race distance to permit a proper ending in very specific conditions.
I dunno, I’m just a guy who really enjoys the sport.
A shame he’s been removed from that role. F1 needed to finish the last race with a race, not under a safety car, and that’s what Michael delivered Imagine the fury if he finished it under a safety car? Either way he would have been crucified which isn’t fair.
Rather than build the additional support around Massi, to ensure decisions in future are more defensible, the FIA have instead sought to make him a scapegoat. Let’s see how the new rotating directors will fare when Ver/Ham are battling again in 2022….
Thanks Joe. I think this is a very poor decision which leave the FIA open to accusations of undue influience by Lewis Hamilton & Mercedes F1.
And, where was the statement from Lewis Hamilton or Toto Wolf berating the online abuse targetted at Michael Masi? Given their recent social campaigns, I find them both now extrememly hypocritcal.
I think Lewis has tarnished his reputation and legacy. Next time Lewis gets down on his knee we know he is not really serious.
In the end Hamilton is beaten by: ‘THAT GUY’ as he arrogantly called Max for a couple of years.
Ham is very successfully posing as a modest and humble human being. Basking in public glory he is a very successful public relations machine manipulating the sentiments around him and HIM alone. He is extremely self centered and takes all the space that is available in the public domain. Next to that he experiences any misfortune as a personal injustice and insult and loudly protest it while he blames his opponent.
Modest?
Imagine the fury if the race had finished as per the rules? Happened plenty of times before and will happen again. The only fury would have been from Drive to Survive fans.
Not in the World Championship decider. And I don’t remember many races finishing under yellow. It’s very unsatisfactory when it happens
Good. 2021 season could have been remembered as one of the best ever, instead it will be forever tarnished by the inexplicable making up of the rules on the spot by Masi. He had to go to protect the integrity of the sport, whatever was left of it.
What rules did he change that impacted the world championship?
Thanks for you constant excellent reporting AND engagement. You do more than just report and it is important to acknowledge that as well.
I was certain that I had read here (or on your Twitter) in the fall before the end of the season that Niels Wittich was coming into F1 to support / replace Masi this year. I confident that I had already read this and have searched and see nothing. I do see you Twitter mentioned with someone suggesting in Dec that Niels would support Michael, it must have been that instead.
I didn’t report it because after Abu Dhabi I went home and shut the door…
At last a sensible decision from the FIA, and an effective acceptance that the race director and Abu Dhabi stewards did indeed get it fundamentally wrong.
You are named after a horse and its owner. Bendor belonged to the Duke of Westminster, a Grosvenor…
Careful Joe, you’ll have Prateek or his mentor after you !
Your retorts are always good value and in this case an example of your wide learning.
Roll on Wednesday, I’m not sure how much we’re all going to be allowed to learn but hopefully enough that we shall be able to move on to the future and not continue fussing about the water under the bridge.