Last year the fate of the title was decided in the closing laps of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton confidently leading the way, but on the restart after the safety car, Max Verstappen overtook the Briton, won the race and the title.
FIA Race Director Michael Masi’s mistake at the restart was obvious, but Mercedes was persuaded not to protest so that the fate of the championship title would not be decided in court. The FIA conducted its own investigation and 97 days after the race published a report with conclusions on the mistakes made – Masi called the safety car to the pit lane without passing an extra lap, as required by the sporting regulations, and did not allow any cars that had fallen behind returned to one circle with the race leader. If everything had gone according to the rules, the race would have ended behind the safety car and Hamilton would have been champion. As a result, Masi was removed from his position as race director.
Masi received serious criticism, many were unhappy that the fate of the title was not decided in a real fight, but at the behest of the race director, who felt like a public person with the arrival of Netflix, which never happened under Charlie Whiting, who he replaced.
Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner called Masi’s criticism a “smokescreen”, accusing Mercedes of “a concerted campaign to discredit Verstappen’s championship title”, but unexpectedly admitted in an interview with The Cambridge Union that Masi indeed broke the rules.
Christian Horner “Looks like there were three cars that couldn’t return in the same circle with the leader. It was the only mistake he made. And I think the public criticism of him is wrong, he was trolled and insulted on the internet, without feeling real support from the FIA.
Last year he made a lot of decisions that we thought were against us, like yellow flags at Qatar qualifying or the Lewis incident at Silverstone. But I felt Masi deserved more support after being in an incredibly difficult situation.
The title is not achieved in one race, but throughout the season. And I think Max’s performance last year, sometimes not in the best car, shows that he deserved this win 100%.
Source: F1 News
I’m Todderic Kirkman, a journalist and author for athletistic. I specialize in covering all news related to sports, ranging from basketball to football and everything in between. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have become an invaluable asset to my team. My ambition is to bring the most up-to-date information on sports topics around the world.
