Masi: "Everyone's looking after their own little patch of turf"

Although at the start of the season it was all rather quiet in terms of penalties and points handed out, Michael Masi, FIA's Sporting Director, is now a busy man again. In Austria, the stewards were working overtime and at Silverstone, the most talked-about moment of the season took place: the crash between Hamilton and Verstappen.

Own streets

During the red flag situation, Mercedes and Red Bull Racing could be heard on the broadcast trying to bend the stewards' opinion regarding the incident. Masi says on this to Autosport.com not to be frustrated: "No frustration. That's part of it, it comes in different waves depending on what it is. Everyone is cleaning their own streets, so to speak, which is what you would expect."

Masi says he's not prejudiced when it comes to these types of decisions: "From my perspective, I treat them all equally and try to balance what we have to do with certain priorities in your own head, what you have in front of you. And you have to prioritize accordingly. There were a couple of times when I said, 'Just wait and I'll call you back,' which happened earlier, which you probably didn't hear, you just heard the conversation that was broadcast."

A different perspective

"Obviously it's a form of communication for the teams to bring something to our attention, or put forward their point of view," he said. "And it's absolutely not for me to get involved in that discussion, especially if it's a matter that the stewards are looking into." Masi also has no problem with conversations with the teams being broadcast openly: "That way the public gets to see a different perspective of what goes on behind the scenes."