Masi: 'The stewards assess the incident, not the consequences'

Some thought the penalty for Lewis Hamilton was too high, others too low and some even thought he should not have received any penalty at all. Race director Michael Masi, though, fully agrees with the decision of the stewards.

Agrees with the decision

Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton battled hard in the opening lap. Hamilton tried to overtake at Copse Corner, but hit the Dutchman's rear wheel, sending him into the tyres with a force of 51g. Verstappen had to go to the hospital for a checkup and Hamilton managed to win the race.

On the official website of Formula 1 Masi defends the stewards' decision to give Hamilton a ten-second time penalty. "Looking at the incident, I agree with the stewards and the penalty they imposed," he said.

Not looking at the consequences

Masi stresses that it is very important for the stewards to look objectively at the incident itself. "When you judge incidents, judge the incident itself, the merits of the incident and not what happens afterwards as a consequence. That's the way the stewards judge it, because if you start to include the consequences, there are so many variables instead of judging the incident itself."

Hamilton predominantly guilty

According to the stewards, Hamilton was predominantly, not entirely, to blame for Verstappen's crash. According to Masi, Hamilton could have stayed closer to the apex. "He could have gone further in and that could have changed the outcome, but we don't know that - we have to judge the incident itself."