Soldato
FIA confirm Michael Masi removed as race director
- Thread starter Mr Jack
- Start date
Soldato
You mean the fans that support an entitled, arrogant, violent young man that bases his outlook on his father's doing? His father who was previously given a 5 year suspended jail sentence for assault, who was charged and given a suspended sentence for assaulting his wife, and finally in 2011 the man who was arrested for attempted murder on his then-girlfriend. Yeah, Max fans would be absolutely fine
This is exactly why I didn't care where the driver's championship went this season. It got to the point where it was a circus of watching toys coming out of prams everywhere. The stewards got some of the minor decisions way off from time to time, nevermind when it came to Lewis and Max. They need to find a level and keep it consistent, otherwise, it's going to start feeling like WWE and not motorsport.
In some ways the obvious move would be for him to take over the role of one of the people who is replacing him, but I doubt the FIA will want to as straightforwardly demote him.
Associate
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You'd have to be the most absolute die-hard Max fan to describe that farce as a wonderful end to the season.
Hanlon's razor applies: "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence". Masi isn't a bad guy, he was just out of his depth and made a bad mistake at a key point. I agree with his removal but I don't wish him ill.
I was lambasting him on FB after quite a few different races, but I broadly agree. Shame that he will get all the blame, whereas actually it's the FIA's fault for having the staffing setup that they did. The mind boggles that the race director in charge of safety etc, dealing with incidents on track, stewards, rules etc. also had to deal with the team bosses and engineers getting on the phone every two seconds to argue their case. It's was obviously totally unworkable. I don't know what changed after Charlie Whiting (besides Masi) but it was clearly for the worst.
Nothing changed after Whiting, except the broadcasting of team to race director communications.
The difference is Charlie had many years in charge, as the sport and rules and role of race director gradually changed, so he was able to change along with it, and learn to cope with all the different aspects of the role.
Michael was dumped in at the deep end so to speak, with no real time to learn and adapt to the role.
Not a huge amount of experience, massive pressure from all sides, and he is only human, mistakes will be made.
Soldato
So what has Herbie Blash been doing for the past two years? Did they not think Masi needed an assistant the same way Charlie did?
Soldato
He's now 73. He'd retired back in 2016!
I think it is just because it was more than a "dodgy" decision, and directly affected the title outcome. I've never seen a referee of a sport simply make up a new and clearly bizarre/unfair rule, simply to engineer a last minute spectacle. That is not how sporting competitions should work.
The race should have ended under the safety car or with lap cars staying as they were. That would have resulted in Lewis winning, but that would have been fair, sporting, and within the rule book.
There was enough time to do things properly and still have a lap, but between managing the crash, comms to all the teams, and having 2 team principals screaming in your ear, it's no surprise that there was a knee-jerk reaction.
I'd also put money on F1 management telling him that they can't end under safety car. Say what you will about how things ended, it was huge for F1 publicity vs the alternative.
I know they say any publicity is good publicity, but in this case, I don't think that has played out that way. It was a shocking way to end one of the biggest sporting competitions in the world, after such a closely fought season.
It is why they have got rid of them, as I think they know his position was untenable, and that it was the only way to get a lot of fans back on board with next season.
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Was not just one decision though.
Masi made a whole string of bad decisions almost from day one of being put in charge.
As has been said, before Masi Charlie had a deputy to share the load.
Now Masi has been replaced, there is a team to share the load.
While he was in charge Masi was on his own, with very little support, so kind of no wonder the pressure got to him.
Soldato
Fair enough - but he's now back out of retirement
https://the-race.com/formula-1/whitings-calm-pragmatic-sidekick-blash-is-just-what-f1-needs/
FIA only now learning their lesson that the RD is more than just one person?
Hard to tell because, as fans, we'll definitely be back, but I'd think that this situation brought in some viewers.
What I will say is that I'm glad they changed things with the FIA, otherwise I'd worry about this becoming a trend for the sake of views - that would totally kill the sport.
I wasn't going to bother following the season properly if they didn't sack Masi and I know others (not just on here) that were going to do the same.
The end of the last race was an absolute sham and totally undermined the integrity of the sport.
It's public knowledge that they'd all discussed and agreed the desire to finish under green flag racing. However, I don't think anyone expected Masi to interpret that in such an extreme way.
Not only that, but they'd done things like making it free-to-view on Channel 4 bringing in many more viewers than for most races. A lot of people were watching and they very publicly embarrassed themselves. I'm sure it went down well in Holland though.
Yea, but what's not public (yet) is whether management got involved and forced the decision, or whether it's 100% on Masi.
Don
Just wait for his (as soon as he leaves the FIA) book to be announced, with all the "answers"