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F1 says, 'whoopsie', fires race director

seminole97

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Jun 14, 2005
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Michael Masi has been removed from his position as F1 race director after the investigation into his handling of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in December.

Masi botched the finish of the title decider between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton last year. The race was settled by a one-lap sprint, which saw Verstappen pass Hamilton to win the title after the safety car restart rules were incorrectly applied by Masi.

Masi effectively forced that last-lap showdown when he only let a certain amount of lapped cars overtake Hamilton, moving Verstappen right up behind him on brand new tyres before restarting the race one lap before the regulations said he was supposed to in that situation.

On Thursday, new FIA president Mohammed ben Sulayem confirmed that Masi had been removed from the position and replaced by an overhauled system of controlling and officiating F1 races.

The decision is effectively an admission by the FIA that the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix should not have been restarted in the way it was.

The role of race director will be filled by two alternating people. Niels Wittich, current DTM race director, and Eduardo Freitas, current race director of the World Endurance Championship, will take turns in filling the role.

They will both be assisted by Herbie Blash, 73, who used to work in a similar role under former race director Charlie Whiting but retired in 2016. Masi stepped in to replace Whiting after his sudden death on the eve of the 2019 season opener.

One contentious point with Masi's handling of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was how he appeared overwhelmed and inundated with messages from Mercedes and Red Bull. The FIA has confirmed that teams will no longer be able to send messages directly to the race director, which will now presumably be handled by Blash in his new role.

They will be assisted by a virtual race control room the FIA has likened to the controversial Virtual Assistant Referee (VAR) system in football. This will be located outside the F1 circuit and will work in real-time connection with the F1 race director to apply the sporting regulations "using the most modern technological tools".

The timing of the announcement was curious, as it came moments after Ferrari, the sport's most popular team, had launched its new F1 car for the 2022 season.
 
Verstappen drives F1 like he's Dale Earnhardt.

He is an amazing talent, kind of sorry for him his first title will have this taint.

But he is such an ass I can't feel that sorry for him.

Yep. It was a bad decision then, and it's a bad decision now.

What I don't understand is MB dropping the appeal? Likely would have won, unless Masi getting fired was part of a back room deal.

And the cool part is that Haas just debuted it's new 2022 car. Nice. Would love to see them be competitive this year.

 
I know very little about racing, and I know even less about F1. It's so hard to follow in the US. Also, 2/3 of the races being on the other side of the planet and therefore on TV at two AM makes it tough as well.
 
Verstappen drives F1 like he's Dale Earnhardt.

He is an amazing talent, kind of sorry for him his first title will have this taint.

But he is such an ass I can't feel that sorry for him.
This. His dad is a prick too. Lewis handled the whole situation with class. I understand how polarizing Lewis is but I’ll definitely be rooting for him going forward after that screw job. He probably would’ve walked away after 8 too.
 
I know very little about racing, and I know even less about F1. It's so hard to follow in the US. Also, 2/3 of the races being on the other side of the planet and therefore on TV at two AM makes it tough as well.

You might be surprised how accessible it is, I watched probably 80% of them on ESPN with most of them starting early morning like 7am-8am.

You can see the schedule for 2022 below, there's only a handful of races in the middle of the night our time:

 
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You might be surprised how accessible it is, I watched probably 80% of them on ESPN with most of them starting early morning like 7am-8am.

You can see the schedule for 2022 below, there's only a handful of races in the middle of the night our time:

wild fact, f1 is letting ESPN air it all for FREE. Great way to market the sport post Netflix exposure. And it’s working.
 
Verstappen drives F1 like he's Dale Earnhardt.

He is an amazing talent, kind of sorry for him his first title will have this taint.

But he is such an ass I can't feel that sorry for him.

Yeah, I'm a new fan, coming from Drive to Survive. Chose Max/Red Bull to pull for a handful of reasons, none all that meaningful. Been kind of disappointing to gradually learn that he's a douche.
 
You might be surprised how accessible it is, I watched probably 80% of them on ESPN with most of them starting early morning like 7am-8am.

You can see the schedule for 2022 below, there's only a handful of races in the middle of the night our time:

Oh, I know you can catch it on TV, but if I'm up at 7 or 8 AM on a weekend it means I've got some place to be or something to do and don't have time to watch F1.
 
Oh, I know you can catch it on TV, but if I'm up at 7 or 8 AM on a weekend it means I've got some place to be or something to do and don't have time to watch F1.
I do love the YouTubeTV DVR.
Not hard to avoid F1 race results until I can watch it.
 
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