Michael Masi has been tipped as ‘likely’ to lose his job as the FIA’s Formula One race director after his central role in Sunday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix controversy. The Australian is facing mass criticism for ignoring F1 regulations in the closing stages of the 2021 season that will go down in the sport’s history.
Masi should’ve followed Article 48.12 of F1’s regulations which might have seen Lewis Hamilton win a record-breaking eighth world title after finishing the race in P1.
Instead, he allowed racing to resume in the final lap but only after the cars between Hamilton and Max Verstappen were allowed to unalp themselves.
Verstappen, sporting fresh tyres, soared past Hamilton to steal the victory and claim his maiden Drivers’ Championship triumph.
Williams driver Nicolas Lafiti’s late crash prompted a safety car, but despite initially stating lapped drivers couldn’t unlap themselves, Masi then allowed the five cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to do so in the penultimate lap.
And while protocol rules that all cars on the grid must unlap themselves, only those between the two title contenders did so as Masi allowed a one-lap dash to decide the title.
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Fox Sports Australia say Masi is likely to lose his job as a result of the drama.
Afterwards, Masi explained his decision with the same F1 regulations he ignored at the end of Sunday’s controversial Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
He told Motorsport Weekly: “There’s a requirement in the sporting regulations to wave all the lapped cars past.
“From that point, it was position six onwards that were still running [on the lead lap], so between 10 or 11 cars had to un-lap themselves.
“Therefore the safety car period was a bit longer than what we would have normally expected.”
The relevant regulations haven’t significantly changed since the 2020 season, making the fact he did the opposite to his decision in Abu Dhabi even more questionable.
Mercedes were understandably left reeling by his actions and approached stewards with two protests on Sunday evening.
Both were rejected, but there is still a possibility the Silver Arrows will take the matter to the Court of Appeal in search of the outcome they feel they deserve.
While the debate over the Abu Dhabi GP finish will rumble on for weeks and months, so will speculation on Masi’s future.
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