Why Michael Masi had to leave his role as Race Director
At long last the worst kept secret in Formula 1 is out the bag. Michael Masi will leave his role as race director. His position was virtually untenable after the debarkle in Abu Dhabi. Is this a surprise. Absolutely not? Is it the right decision? In my opinion yes, Michael Masi had to go but why is it correct, that’s what we are going to try and explain and weigh up whether it was fair or not. We’ll also make an argument for why it maybe wasn’t the right decision.
We’ve already done multiple videos on what happened in Abu Dhabi and let’s be honest everyone already knows what happened on that December Sunday afternoon, so we won’t go into the incident too much, but it is fair to say what occurred was an absolute shambles.
Upholding their own rules
Because there was a clause that meant Masi could change the procedure of the safety car, the FIA had probably hoped that it would all blow over… No chance. This has put them under all sorts of pressure and ultimately cost Masi his job. Under so much pressure, the FIA were forced to review it properly and the results of the inquiry, albeit not yet known, probably don’t stack up in his favour and made Masi’s position untenable.
How could the Australian stay in a job when proper regulation was not put into practice? The FIA would lose all credibility and potentially bring the sport into disrepute, if they weren’t even prepared to uphold their own rules.
The application of the rules
The application of the rules was questionable all season not just in Abu Dhabi. Right from the decision to penalise Max in Bahrain almost every decision has been tinged with controversy. Although Bahrain was controversial, if they had stuck with that precedent then at least every decision was judged fairly. But come the end of the season some incidents went unpunished whilst some were overly punished, Brazil and Saudi Arabia were prime examples. Was it the consistency of the decision making that cost Masi his job? No. Would there have been an investigation if Abu Dhabi never happened? Almost certainly not, however, Abu Dhabi was the catalyst for the inquiry into the wider application of the rules. It would never have happened on its own, but together the FIA had bonfire that they needed to put out.
The Hamilton conundrum
And then we have the Hamilton conundrum, I mentioned this on my previous video on the subject, but it was effectively one or the other. I exchanged comments with a few people after that video, and whether they were team Max or Lewis, most agreed the sport wasn’t big enough for them both. Get rid of the biggest star in the sport’s history? Someone who’s success may never be replicated, or replace the person who is replaceable in this context? It’s a pretty obvious decision, Masi could never stay. Hamilton had clearly become disillusioned with the race direction, and in my opinion, fairly so. I was pretty fed up with the meddling where it wasn’t necessary and the lack of interference where it was needed so god knows what Hamilton was thinking.
Has Masi got a defence?
Is there a pro-mass argument? Well yeah, he had probably the hardest job in the sport, managing the entire grid in the heat of the fiercest of title battles, with bitter rivals bickering away at every opportunity. He got caught in no mans land. And taking over from Charlie Whiting, a man who was so popular amongst the grid, it was poisoned chalice. However, he was spineless when he needed to apply the rules in the fairest way, and the recently revealed radio messages between him and Jonathan Wheatley are borderline disgraceful and for me that was the final nail in the coffin.
I’m recording or writing this in the immediate aftermath of the news, so I’m not overly sure how well I’ve articulated myself and I’ve almost definitely missed something, however, I’d love to hear from you was Michael Masi leaving the right move?
This was a script written by Joe Tyrrell for a video on the GP Blog YouTube channel.
