FIA confirm Michael Masi removed as race director

Yeah that's ridiculous. Like I've always said it's not just about Abu Dhabi. His record over the season was appalling. Look at the nonsense that Verstappen got away with e.g. every single safety car restart right up alongside Hamilton if not in front of him momentarily. All the times he pushed him off track, or overtook off track. There's so many things Masi and co let slide that enabled RB to 'win' that championship. The more I think about it the more they need accept he wasn't fit for the role and shouldn't be let anywhere near it again.

With fans like myself feeling even more aggrieved over last season due to Mercedes lack of pace this year, we/they're not going to let it slide if he comes back into the fold. Totally unacceptable.
 
EVH said:
www.racefans.net

FIA seeking third race director for F1, "might use" Masi in a role

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem says former Formula 1 race director Michael Masi could return to the sport in future.
www.racefans.net www.racefans.net

So they’re considering using Masi in future :rolleyes:

By using him, you can guarantee that it would draw unnecessary criticism of any questionable decision he’s involved with. Even if he’s not directly involved, I would bet that the F1 audience would be up in arms and ready to blame him for any bad decisions of a race weekend.

The backtracking about “never getting rid of him” makes me sick. Yes, they said they were going to find him another role… but I’m certain that didn’t mean he’d be back as a race director :rolleyes:
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If they do, I stop following F1 again.

Him holding that position is untenable . He changed the rules to manipulate the championship (and as the poster above stated, was pretty rubbish the rest of the season).

Also, after watching DTS, I don't know how the team principals put up with his horrible condescending tone.
 
Mr Jack said:
Masi has now officially left the FIA to "...relocate to Australia to be closer to his family and take on new challenges.”

I was unimpressed by his time in F1, but I don't think he was in any way a bad person just poorly supported and not up to the task he was given. I wish him well in his future.
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I dont think there was any real suggestion that he was a bad person except from your average mouth breather.

However in his time in post he demonstrated over and over again he was not at all suited for the position. He lacked authority, was easily influenced, inconsistent and lacked the ability to handle the stress and pressure of the role. Granted he was under huge amounts of pressure. However, this in some way was self inflicted by not taking a hard line to begin with. he didnt set out the boundaries or lay the foundations for his tenure.
He and the sport paid the price. It was clear last season that he just didnt command the support or the respect of the teams. They would have never put him in the position he was in if they had. His position was not sustainable long term, regardless of Abu dhabi, if it hadnt been that race it would have been another, that was just the final nail in the coffin in my opinion.
It was never going to be an easy role to fill, Charlie was a big figure who earned his respect and had mighty amounts of knowledge and experience to tap into to make informed decisions. Charlie was also no stranger to controversy. However, he had the comfort of cutting his teeth in the job in an era where every snippet of information wasnt available for public consumption.

The current arrangement still leaves much to be desired. Although early signs have been promising, there are still clearly issues with consistency weekend to weekend depending on which director is in place. What is promising though is clear authority. It will take some ironing out to make it work properly. We cant have Charlie back so another solution is required, not everyone will be happy.
 
Mr Jack said:
Masi has now officially left the FIA to "...relocate to Australia to be closer to his family and take on new challenges.”

I was unimpressed by his time in F1, but I don't think he was in any way a bad person just poorly supported and not up to the task he was given. I wish him well in his future.
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Quite, he was hung out to dry right from the start and never once deserved all the vitriol and threats to him and his family. I guess some 'think' they can act as judge and jury on him without knowing any of the facts, his brief and what he was asked to do by the FIA and conveniently forget he was the only one with the experience and the credentials to replace Charlie at that time, which was fully supported by all the teams and the drivers.
Forum talk is cheap..
 
Where it started to go wrong at the final race was when he decided that the race wasn't going to finish under a safety car regardless. (Which to his credit he apparently told all the teams/principals so they did know this..)

His other issues were, not really being funded very well by the FIA and the TP's constantly nagging him for anything and everything.
 
KiNgPiN83 said:
Where it started to go wrong at the final race was when he decided that the race wasn't going to finish under a safety car regardless. (Which to his credit he apparently told all the teams/principals so they did know this..)

His other issues were, not really being funded very well by the FIA and the TP's constantly nagging him for anything and everything.
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You are correct that Masi decided not to finish the race under the safety car, however he was following an agreement with all the teams and the FIA. Where ever he ends up, hopefully in another form of motorsport, he will be an asset to it and I for one wish him all the best..
 
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cuke2u said:
You are correct that Masi decided not to finish the race under the safety car, however he was following an agreement with all the teams and the FIA. Where ever he ends up, hopefully in another form of motorsport, he will be an asset to it and I for one wish him all the best..
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Hahaha you what mate?

Anyhow back in the real world it has now become clear that everyone knows the championship was given to the wrong driver and we were cheated out of the correct result. That championship will forever be tainted now, the best thing they could do is rule it null and void.
 
Quote Zack Brown: “It is the teams who applied the pressure to avoid finishing races under a Safety Car at all costs.” https://thejudge13.com/2022/01/17/m...void-finishing-under-safety-car-at-all-costs/
I'm not referring to the result of the controversial end to the race, obviously Lewis zealots have their opinions, but the agreement Masi and the FIA were pressured into by all the teams which went on to displease the actor Wolfe who then reversed his decision because his driver lost out.
In the real world teams have had to much of an influence now things have changed and now the teams and the drivers aren't happy one bit
 
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Anyone in that sort of position who can't follow the rules printed in black and white doesn't deserve the job. He wouldn't have ever been removed had he just made the decision that was expected in line within the sporting regulations/rules.

If you made such a critically obviously fatally flawed error in your work place, yet knew the rules in black and white would you still have a job, or indeed deserve to keep it, even if those around you (who aren't doing your job) are asking you to just bend/ignore the rules, then bringing the whole company into disrepute and potentially causing major issues. No, you wouldn't is the answer.
 
cuke2u said:
Quote Zack Brown: “It is the teams who applied the pressure to avoid finishing races under a Safety Car at all costs.” https://thejudge13.com/2022/01/17/m...void-finishing-under-safety-car-at-all-costs/
I'm not referring to the result of the controversial end to the race, obviously Lewis zealots have their opinions, but the agreement Masi and the FIA were pressured into by all the teams which went on to displease the actor Wolfe who then reversed his decision because his driver lost out.
In the real world teams have had to much of an influence now things have changed and now the teams and the drivers aren't happy one bit
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What on earth is that site? The anti-Mercedes official fan page or something? The way that it is written is laughable. All Zak Brown is saying, presumably in an interview completely unrelated to AD, is that teams there has been a power shift towards the teams over the FIA in recent times, and that one of the subjects was to avoid finishing a race under safety car conditions. No-one disagrees with any of that, but I ask you, who said "you only need one lap" to Masi, and who did Masi quote when telling Wolff "we're going motor racing"? The whole idea of not finishing under safety car conditions is obvious, I'm sure every team pushed for that all the time. All of the fans would. But not like happened in AD which was bending the rules to favour one driver who at that point had lost the championship fair and square.
 
mjt said:
But then if he didn't want to finish the race under the safety car, then he shouldn't have let ANY car unlap themselves.

Which is what, of course, Mercedes were expecting, and thus thought they were safe by not pitting Hamilton for fresh tyres...
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That of course is a different position from, perhaps, hindsight. Masi had seconds to make a decision under pressure from the teams and there wasn't long enough for all the cars to unlap themselves..
 
KiNgPiN83 said:
Where it started to go wrong at the final race was when he decided that the race wasn't going to finish under a safety car regardless. (Which to his credit he apparently told all the teams/principals so they did know this..)

His other issues were, not really being funded very well by the FIA and the TP's constantly nagging him for anything and everything.
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Apart from the teams all wanted this and previously had agreed to it, which is why they are now restricted in the decision making process.
Just to clarify, I am not necessarily stating Masi's decision was right, or that it was wrong. But he was placed in an unfair situation by the FIA, unsupported it would seem, thus made a decision he thought was right as it had been agreed too. The outcome could still have been very different with the same decision but it played out the way it is and some just need to accept it and move on..
 
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cuke2u said:
That of course is a different position from, perhaps, hindsight. Masi had seconds to make a decision under pressure from the teams and there wasn't long enough for all the cars to unlap themselves..
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Yeah exactly. So none of the cars should have been allowed to unlap themselves. There's no discussion to be had here.
He ****** up and how he's ****** off.
 
cuke2u said:
That of course is a different position from, perhaps, hindsight. Masi had seconds to make a decision under pressure from the teams and there wasn't long enough for all the cars to unlap themselves..
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No sympathy from me. Someone gets to an important decision like that and that's what you're paid for. If you're a CEO of a company you get questions thrown at you left, right and centre and are expected to make the right call sometimes on the spot. F1 is a fast-paced sport (duh). If he really needed more time and realised it was going to be a close call as to whether or not they would finish the race under the yellow, he could have red flagged. Nobody could have arghued with that, we've seen less-prominent obstructions cause them.
cuke2u said:
Apart from the teams all wanted this and previously had agreed to it, which is why they are now restricted in the decision making process.
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You're misinterpreting the article you linked to. Clearly Zak was saying generally teams would not want to finish under a SC. As in generally teams let their two drivers race. We all know that's true until it doesn't suit the occasion.
cuke2u said:
and some just need to accept it and move on..
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I think it's going to be a very long time before people get anywhere close to forgetting this. It's a total travesty. Hamilton should be a record-holding, unquestionably the best F1 driver that ever lived with 8 world championships under his belt. People would have accepted MV or Leclerc winning this year due to the regs changing, and perhaps an element of the new guard taking over, but now it's just a bitter pill to swallow. It's ruined Hamilton's legacy, it's ruined the legacy of that era of the sport, and worse it's put that muppet MV at the "forefront" of F1 with all of his hooligan fans believing the hype that he's the new messiah and somehow Hamilton's equal already. It's a nonsense. I don't care if I sound bitter, because I am!
 
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