FIA drops Masi, Freitas (WEC) and Wittich (DTM) take over

[erwin greven]

Bottom post of the previous page:

Both Wittich and Freitas were directors of series in which the last race of the season were marred with controversy.

DTM
WEC

[Star]

Will it make Hamilton happy enough to race? We should find out tomorrow I guess. I am assuming it will.

In effect the FIA have said 'we did it wrong and this is how we're going to make sure it doesn't happen again'. Michael Masi was in an incredibly difficult position on the day and he made the decision he felt was right at the time. We can all sit here and say he should have done this or that (especially with hindsight) but in his position would we have done better than he did? The pressure he was under from so many sides was insane and it shouldn't have been allowed to happen, to some degree you have to blame the FIA for allowing a situation where the team bosses could effectively try and bully him into doing what they wanted.

That's how I see it anyway. Only time will tell if this new scenario causes better results in difficult situations, let's hope so.

[DoubleFart]

I think Abu Dhabi was nothing when compared to Jeddah and the "What do you want to do, go back to 3rd, or take a penalty?" "We'll take 3rd as long as Ocon is 1st" "Ok, let me come back to you".

There would NOT have been negotiation with Charlie Whiting.

[Aty]

...

[XcraigX]

As a couple have mentioned it was more than the finale that was the problem. The inconsistency in penalty application and enforcement from Masi made the tensions worse and worse every race. The series needs more consistency through the season.

Although the appointed pair don't seem to be much better.

[MonteCristo]

IMO the best way would be none at all. If you are lapped then why should you get anything for free?

Exactly.

What I don't understand is why it takes them 5 laps to unlap cars, and why they then need to wait for them to form behind the field. Either send them to the back of the field (let unlapped cars filter forward), or release them immediately and stop wasting time.

[Everso Biggyballies]

IMO the best way would be none at all. If you are lapped then why should you get anything for free?

Exactly.

What I don't understand is why it takes them 5 laps to unlap cars, and why they then need to wait for them to form behind the field. Either send them to the back of the field (let unlapped cars filter forward), or release them immediately and stop wasting time.

As I have said before the unlapping of cars in its current method is highly flawed..... the lapped cars are released, they rush round at near racing speed for a lap and then arrive at the rear of the field as the race goes green, but with the huge bonus of almost fully warmed tyres against cars that still have cooler tyres. A huge advantage that penalises those at the rear of field that were not lapped.

Drop them (lapped cars) to the back and if necessary credit them a lap. At least that way they dont gain the benefit of the tyre warming catch up lap.

[MonteCristo]

Drop them (lapped cars) to the back and if necessary credit them a lap. At least that way they dont gain the benefit of the tyre warming catch up lap.

And we get the benefit of 3 laps/5-6 minutes less SC action.

[PTRACER]

I think Abu Dhabi was nothing when compared to Jeddah and the "What do you want to do, go back to 3rd, or take a penalty?" "We'll take 3rd as long as Ocon is 1st" "Ok, let me come back to you".

There would NOT have been negotiation with Charlie Whiting.

I agree, that was far worse.

But it does seem that Masi was negatively influenced by the team principals being on the radio to him. And if you listen to this podcast with Tiff Needell, he basically eats into Masi, says he brought the sport into disrepute and Sky did their best to cover it up and brush it under the carpet, so that's possibly one reason why we are all sticking up for Masi

[Everso Biggyballies]

I thought this from our local press (bearing in mind Masi is an Aussie with a background as a local race director) walys quite good, and outlines the inevitability of Masi's removal, not to mention the political undertones given the timing of a new head of the FIA taking the reins and needing to do something.

In essence, yes it was inevitable that changes had to be made and to this end Masi's position was untenable given the circumstances. It highlights the pressures and welcomes the changes made in the RD structure and operation and ongoing need for a different system which we now have.he good thing is that the new RD setup will leave them (the RD's) in a place not likely to hve them facing the same issues Michael did.

Anyway here is the article from Speedcafe.

Making sense of Masi’s Formula 1 demise

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s decision to move Michael Masi out of the Formula 1 race director role was an inevitability.

Masi has been central to debates that have raged since the season ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

In some instances the criticisms have been fair, but in many cases they’ve crossed the line.

What is fair and reasonable to say is that the Aussie made a mistake in the way he managed the late Safety Car in Abu Dhabi.

It was a high-profile error and one that had significant repercussions on a sport in which its competitors invest hundreds of millions of dollars.

But we should take a step back to understand how and why Michael made the mistake he did.

He was working in a pressure cooker environment at the end of the longest season the sport has ever seen in the midst of one of the most intense championship battles on record.

Michael is a world class race director, hand picked by the late Charlie Whiting as his replacement. That is a hell of an endorsement and speaks of how highly rated he is.

Sadly, he was thrust into Whiting’s position far more quickly than planned, and much of his learnings had to be done on the job without an experienced mentor figure to help guide him.

And while he made a mistake in Abu Dhabi, the decision to move him aside is largely a political one.

Ben Sulayem has just taken on the role of FIA president; with this the first major item he’s dealt with in that office.

It therefore goes a long way to set the tone of his presidency.

No action would have suggest he is out of touch, so something had to be done.

The reforms he announced are logical and long overdue.

Formula 1 is the largest annual sport, and Abu Dhabi was watched by 108.7 million people globally according to the sport itself – a 29 percent increase on the same race a year earlier.

It was inescapable then that the FIA had to react and adding a virtual race control room to support the race director is logical.

Having radio exchanges between the race director and teams broadcast to the television audience is also unfair on all involved, as it lacks any context or sense of timing – we don’t know when those messages were said, we don’t know if there was more to the conversation.

It’s a point McLaren’s Andreas Seidl made last year when asked about the messages, stating those sorts of conversations should be kept behind closed doors.

That Michael will be replaced by two people, not one, is also acknowledgement that he was overworked.

In effect, the FIA is acknowledging that it had created a situation in which the Formula 1 race director would fail.

It mattered not who that individual was, it seems an inevitability that mistakes would be made given the circumstances in which they performed that role.

What was also curious was the timing of the announcement.

As the world’s media was focused on Ferrari’s 2022 car launch, the FIA dropped a video on social media with Ben Sulayem making his announcement.

Ferrari is the sport’s biggest team and garners the most international media attention.

Why then publish such a key statement at that time? It is too coincidental to have been accidental.

It should also be added that the team which has felt most hard done by since Abu Dhabi, Mercedes, is set to unveil its 2022 car tonight.

But there is another aspect to all of this, and its one of perception.

There is a saying that goes ‘perception is reality’, and in the eyes of many fans Michael cheated Lewis Hamilton.

It is unimaginable to think he would do any such thing, and the outcome in Yas Marina was the result of a tired, overworked individual under intense pressure making what they felt was the correct call.

Michael Masi did not rig the world championship or decide he wanted Max Verstappen to win. He did his best to ensure a racing result. Nothing more, nothing less.

However, that is not how many have chosen to see it and that effectively forced the FIA into making the decision to move him aside.

Formula 1 is a hugely commercial sport. It is enjoying strong growth with a swathe of new sponsors entering in recent times.

It’s been described by Zak Brown as something of a golden era of the sport, akin to when tobacco money flowed freely among the paddock.

But underpinning all of that is the fundamental fact that Formula 1 is a fair sporting competition in which the best succeed.

The notion that an individual changed that outcome, and it was therefore reduced to luck, fundamentally shakes that to its very foundation.

Companies will not shell out vast sums of money if they believe the sport is corrupt.

And while it is not, perception is reality and Michael lost the support of the fans.

While he remained in the race director role he was effectively a commercial liability to the sport, which is many times bigger than one person.

So while there were suggestions that Michael would remain in the job, and there was great support from within the FIA for him to continue, his position was untenable.

As unpalatable as the situation is, the outcome was inevitable.

Michael was and remains a world class race director. The challenges thrown in front of him were simply insurmountable, and it is unfortunate that it is he who paid the price in that lesson being learned.

https://www.speedcafe.com/2022/02/18/ma ... -1-demise/

[Cheeveer]

I think Abu Dhabi was nothing when compared to Jeddah and the "What do you want to do, go back to 3rd, or take a penalty?" "We'll take 3rd as long as Ocon is 1st" "Ok, let me come back to you".

There would NOT have been negotiation with Charlie Whiting.

I agree, that was far worse.

But it does seem that Masi was negatively influenced by the team principals being on the radio to him. And if you listen to this podcast with Tiff Needell, he basically eats into Masi, says he brought the sport into disrepute and Sky did their best to cover it up and brush it under the carpet, so that's possibly one reason why we are all sticking up for Masi

It's funny how pretty much all British media have been clamouring to have Masi thrown under the bus and now that he has it's a smugness party. Meanwhile, pretty much the entire Supercars Australia paddock agrees that Masi being sacked IS him being thrown under the bus and IS a disgrace.

(plus see replies from Skaife and Reynolds)

What's that called? National bias? Nah, not at all, can't be.

In relation to that, the British bias seen in motorsports media is terrible. I don't know how many contributors F1TV, but it seems like there's a new Brit on at every race. At F2 and F3 there are Brits headlining the international coverage. This is not broadcasts made for British TV, but for an international audience. Through this, mediocrity is being celebrated just because a driver is British, and the British narratives are being amplified throughout also the non-English speaking world. Of course that is going to influence the perception of the sport and eventually the decision making.

They've all missed the point that Masi probably hasn't been removed because Abu Dhabi was detrimental to the sport, but because he had been compromised by 1) Mercedes and Red Bull, 2) the medial witch hunt. The FIA, while acknowledging that changes would be good, made it easy for themselves by moving Masi.

Beating a dead horse alert: Having a flexible race direction that can think outside the box and ensure a green flag finish is a good thing. The results would have been the same if the correct protocoll had been followed from the start of the SC/if the clean up had been 30 seconds faster/if the race had been one lap longer/if all lapped cars had been allowed to pass, etc.

[MonteCristo]

The results would have been the same if the correct protocoll had been followed from the start of the SC/if the clean up had been 30 seconds faster/if the race had been one lap longer/if all lapped cars had been allowed to pass, etc.

Or maybe if Hamilton had been given a penalty at the start of the race for corner cutting... #AnotherMasiFuckUp

[Aty]

If Mr. Masi was (allegedly) lacking in several areas due to his inexperience, how much experience do have his replacements to perform better than he did?

Dr. Marko, a man who is on the inside (as opposed to some voices screaming from rooftops), he has authoritatively asserted that FiA men were hugely overworked. In that situation, instead rectifying organizational shortcoming, new top man decided to dismiss the victim? Yes, I think Aussie is the victim of FiA' internal politics, surrendering to external pressures. If this theater is prelude what's coming, I don't have much hope for the future with that organization. They can move now offices from Paris to London.

Now we can only wait when is next outburst emanating from the car #44 and his handlers. It did worked once, it will work again. After all, he is the precious thing the F1 has, as we painfully learned over winter break.

[DoubleFart]

The results would have been the same if the correct protocoll had been followed from the start of the SC/if the clean up had been 30 seconds faster/if the race had been one lap longer/if all lapped cars had been allowed to pass, etc.

Or maybe if Hamilton had been given a penalty at the start of the race for corner cutting... #AnotherMasiFuckUp

No, that doesn't fit the Hamilton fan narrative.

The pricks on social media trip over themselves constantly though anyway, so it's no surprise that they're hypocrites.

[erwin greven]

What baffles me is that many look back at the Whiting era (1997-2018) with rose tainted glasses.
It was in his era that races were greenflagged while there were still marshals on the track. And it was in his era that races continued under yellow while there were trucks in an unprotected area. We lost Bianchi because of that.

[ReneLotus]

Remember Vettel's expletive laden tirade against Charlie at Mexico in 2017 (?) when he thought Verstappen should give back a place and didn't, which helped Ricciardo close the gap?

Also, Whiting had far fewer races and new circuits to deal with. A lot of his era was limited to 16-18 races plus 1 or maybe 2 new circuits to check each year.
The Masi era, so to speak, had a lot more races, a lot more new/adapted circuits and of course two years that were messed up through the whole Covid pandemic. Making one person race director, safety chief, circuit inspector, chief technical delegate and chief steward was bound to become too much to handle sooner or later.