Toto Wolff, the boss of Mercedes's F1 team has reiterated his disdain for tainted former FIA race director Michael Masi who was involved in the contentious decision to call the safety car back in on the penultimate lap of the final race of the 2021 season. His actions which were highly unusual enabled Red Bull's Max Verstappen to get the jump off Lewis Hamilton in the last lap of the race thanks to fresher rubber which made him a world champion. Going into the race, a titanic battle had ensured between the Red Bull ace and the 7-time world champion, and both were tied for points. When Verstappen made the decisive overtake on Hamilton, Wolff was visibility anguished and lobbied to get the result overturned but Masi didn't budge. Then Mercedes appealed the decision as well which was also dismissed.
In an interview with Sky Sports, Wolff now revealed that he had lunch with Masi a couple of days before the race and shared feedback with him, which according to the Austrian, the Australian was unwilling to acknowledge. Wolff also revealed that Masi had been very disrespectful to many of the drivers in the FIA briefings.
Michael Masi was forced to step down from the role of the FIA race director in the aftermath of the Abu Dhabi race in 2021
"It is quite interesting because I had lunch with him [Masi] on the Wednesday before the race, and I said to him that he needs to take criticism on board and develop from there. You hear from the drivers and how the drivers' briefings were conducted [by Masi] and some of the guys said it was almost disrespectful how he treated some of them. He was just immune to any feedback and even today he has not properly reflected that he did something wrong," he said.
In the aftermath of what happened in Abu Dhabi, the new FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem put in a new protocol for the conduction of races including a virtual race control room. Masi was removed as race director though he is still part of the FIA. There are new race directors - two of them who alternate duties between races and there is also former FIA deputy race director Herbie Blash as a support structure.
Wolff deemed Masi as a liability for the sport as he believed that in the aftermath of the 2021 season everything had become about Masi and his actions and that shouldn't have been the case.
