Masi’s sneer at Wolff will likely be the last in F1
The hardest blow of the entire F1 season fell after the finish in Abu Dhabi yesterday. Race director Michael Masi said over the radio after wailing from Mercedes team boss Wolff: “Toto, it’s called a car race. We went car racing.’ While highly entertaining, it’s not very sporty from either side. It is not the first time a team principal has tried to pressure Masi during the race, so there is likely to be no contact between the race director and the teams next year.
Radio contact between race management and team bosses is like negotiating with the referee
Sports director of F1 Ross Brawn says in an interview to Auto, Motor und Sport that next year will be different. “It is unacceptable that the team bosses are putting such pressure on Michael during the race. Toto Wolff cannot demand that there is no safety car and Christian Horner cannot demand that the cars return. That is at the discretion of the race director. We will stop this contact next year.’ According to Brawn, contacting race management is like negotiating with the referee during a football game.
According to Brawn, the protest also takes away much of the shine from the final. And that’s right, because immediately after the final flag fell, the messages about the protests from Mercedes predominated. Last night it was already announced that the FIA has brushed off the official protests (which of course did not go through the radio). Mercedes immediately indicated that it wanted to appeal. For the time being, Max Verstappen is simply the 2021 F1 world champion.
