Michael Masi, the Formulation One race director on the centre of the controversy surrounding final 12 months’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, may very well be changed in his position in 2022, in keeping with an FIA official investigating the matter.
Final 12 months’s championship consequence continues to be a supply of controversy within the sport and has forged uncertainty over Lewis Hamilton’s future in F1.
In response to Mercedes group boss Toto Wolff, Hamilton was “disillusioned” by the occasions in Abu Dhabi and ESPN understands the result of the FIA’s investigation might decide whether or not the seven-time champion returns to the grid this 12 months.
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Chatting with Austrian newspaper Voralberger Nachrichten, the FIA’s singer-seater director Peter Bayer, who will make proposals to F1 groups and the FIA primarily based on the outcomes of the investigation, stated he couldn’t rule out the likelihood that Masi is changed as race director.
“Michael has performed an awesome job in some ways,” he stated. “We undoubtedly do not need to lose him.
“We advised him that, but additionally that there’s a chance that there could also be a brand new race director.
“I can solely make proposals to the World Council, and they’re going to undoubtedly embrace Michael.”
Masi’s interpretation of F1’s Security Automotive guidelines within the closing laps of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix offered Max Verstappen with an opportunity to beat Hamilton to the 2021 title that he wouldn’t have had if the rules had been adopted to the letter.
Mercedes protested Masi’s selections after the race just for the FIA’s stewards to reject the group’s complaints and uphold the consequence.
Mercedes thought-about interesting the stewards’ determination however finally determined to withdraw its enchantment when the FIA agreed to launch an investigation into the matter.
The investigation obtained underway earlier this month however suggestions from its findings won’t be signed off by the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) till March 18, simply two days earlier than the opening race of the brand new season.
Previous to that date, Bayer will current suggestions for change to the groups and new FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
Within the interview with Voralberger Nachrichten, Bayer stated that if Mercedes had efficiently appealed the results of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in December the most probably consequence would have been an annulment of the race consequence, that means Verstappen would have nonetheless been topped champion primarily based on the factors scores earlier than the race.
“Masi had a number of choices in these seconds when he needed to resolve, all in keeping with rules,” Bayer stated. “He might have completed the race beneath security automotive, he might have stopped [red flag as in Baku], however Nicholas Latifi’s accident wouldn’t have justified it. Or he might have performed what he did, which was to get out of there one way or the other.
“If the Mercedes protest had gone to the Court docket of Enchantment after rejection by the stewards, what would have come out of it? I consider that the judges would have stated that the rules say otherwise to what he determined, so we might solely declare the consequence invalid.
“However even then — within the occasion of cancellation — Max Verstappen would have been world champion. It is also about having respect for the race director.”
Bayer stated one in every of his early conclusions at this stage is that the race director wants extra assist in his position and that the race director’s tasks, which embrace sporting, security can observe inspection tasks, ought to be break up between completely different people.
“There can be a division of the various duties of the race director, who can also be sporting director, security and observe delegate. That was simply an excessive amount of,” Bayer stated.
One factor that was famous within the post-race stewards’ investigation in Abu Dhabi was that the groups had beforehand requested that races not be ended beneath the protection automotive. Bayer stated the groups nonetheless supported that stance, that means work arounds may very well be factored into the principles to keep away from any chance of a race ending behind a security automotive.
“We additionally requested the groups whether or not their demand to not finish a race beneath Security Automotive was nonetheless related, which all of them affirmed,” Bayer stated.
He additionally revealed that the FIA would look into creating extra assist through a “mission management” primarily based in Geneva, which is able to act as a back-up group very similar to the distant engineering teams F1 groups have again at their factories throughout race weekends.
Bayer confirmed that, as had been beforehand reported, group principals would not be capable to converse on to the race director and that new types of communications between the groups and the FIA in the course of the race can be set as much as alleviate strain on the race director.