Michael Masi gets fired/replaced? | Page 50 | FerrariChat

Michael Masi gets fired/replaced?

Discussion in 'F1' started by surfwolf, Dec 12, 2021.

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  1. Alexweav79

    Alexweav79 Formula Junior

    Jan 10, 2009
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    Alex Weaver

    Nope, don't care. I accept what happened, you have not. Again you spew masi, masi, masi, instead of accepting the fact that mercedes could have taken this out of the FIA's hands by pitting and they didn't. This falls on mercedes.
     
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  2. ktu

    ktu F1 Rookie

    May 30, 2012
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    Nope. You spew pit, pit, pit, instead of accepting Masi broke the rules. You don't accept that this happened.
     
  3. Kimi2007

    Kimi2007 Formula 3

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    LOL! Manipulated by RB? Uh, no. The expectation by all teams was that the race would go green for two laps and all lapped cars would be waived by, including Mercedes. That is why when Hamilton asked "Does Max have fresh tires?" his engineer Barrington said "Yes" and when asked "Is he going to be behind me?" before Masi did ANYTHING Barrington replied "He will be". In fact Barrington says "lapped cars will overtake" and then a few seconds later says "wait, sorry. They will not be allowed to overtake. They may restart the race like this". This shows conclusively that even Mercedes expected the restart to restart with lapped cars waived by, and Max behind Hamilton.

    Both Alonso and Vettel asked why lapped cars weren't not being waived by, once again proving the expectation before the confusion began, was that the race would be restarted with the lapped cars waived by.

    The reason Mercedes chose not to pit was because they feared that should they pit and Max stay out, there was a good chance Max would be able to hold Hamilton off with his hard tires, which still had plenty of life in them, so they chose to put all the pressure on Hamilton.

    Why Masi waited an extra lap to do the waive by we'll probably never know, but it doesn't matter. He had the authority to alter the protocol, so long as it was safe to do so, and a panel of stewards upheld that interpretation, and Mercedes were likely advised that they had no legal standing to continue an appeal by their lawyers, so the appeal was dropped completely.

    Everything that happened since then has been nothing but snivel bitching, whining, moaning, and a 7 title WDC behaving like a complete child in defeat.

    Saying "NAH AH!" to all the evidence won't change it, or the results. It's over. Done. Finished. Move on for the love of god.
     
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  4. werewolf

    werewolf F1 World Champ
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    +2021 :D

    Worth emphasizing, once again, that ALL teams were fully expecting the race to end under green, early in the safety car period (immediately following the crash). Two reasons (at least): first, the average safety car interval at the track (before 2021) was 3.2 laps. Second, the pre-race agreement by all teams to end under green, if at all possible. You can even hear this "expectation"... quite clearly ... in the Mercedes radio communication following the crash, when their pit-stop blunder became all-too-obvious.

    ALL teams made their pit-stop decisions ... long before Masi made any decisions regarding unlapping ... with the expectation that the race would end under green, not yellow.
     
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  5. william

    william Two Time F1 World Champ
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    Could you live by your word ?

    You probably know that by answering back, you perpetuate this thread, don't you ? ;)
     
  6. classic308

    classic308 F1 Veteran

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    exactly.
     
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  7. werewolf

    werewolf F1 World Champ
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    27.3 "Drivers must make every reasonable effort to use the track at all times and may not leave the track without a justifiable reason.

    Drivers will be judged to have left the track if no part of the car remains in contact with it and, for the avoidance of doubt, any white lines defining the track edges are considered to be part of the track but the kerbs are not.

    Should a car leave the track the driver may re-join, however, this may only be done when it is safe to do so and without gaining any lasting advantage. At the absolute discretion of the Race Director a driver may be given the opportunity to give back the whole of any advantage he gained by leaving the track.
    "


    Did Masi use his authority, given to him by the rules, to allow Hamilton to "gain a lasting advantage" in Lap 1 of Abu Dhabi?
    Or ... did Masi "break the rules" to keep Hamilton in contention?

    ;) :)
     
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  8. kraftwerk

    kraftwerk Two Time F1 World Champ

    May 12, 2007
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    What utter garbage, 50 pages in yes it's no wonder you want it brushed under the carpet, sore loser, behaving like a child sniveling blah blah blah, Lewis has said nothing, so all in all I read is you moaning and trying to justify it as if it's all Merc's fault, because it doesn't fit your narrow minded narrative, the race was a farce, and every man and his dog knows it.

    You expect a driver to act as if all is well after finishing a WDC deciding race in such farcial and dubious circumstances. :rolleyes:
     
  9. DF1

    DF1 Three Time F1 World Champ

    https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/brundle-resurfaced-masi-audio-uncomfortable-for-f1/8044461/

    Brundle: Resurfaced Masi audio "uncomfortable" for F1
    Former Formula 1 driver and Sky Sports F1 pundit Martin Brundle says resurfaced radio communications with F1 race director Michael Masi from Abu Dhabi are "uncomfortable" to hear.
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    By: Jonathan Noble
    Feb 10, 2022, 7:37 AM
    Audio of a chat between Masi and Red Bull sporting director Jonathan Wheatley were widely circulated on social media on Wednesday, prompting fresh anger from many fans.

    In the conversation that is taking place during the late-race safety car, Wheatley says: "Those lapped cars; you don't need to let them go right the way around and catch up with the back of the pack. You only need to let them go, and then we've got a motor race on our hands."

    What has caused unease among many is that Wheatley's final comment appeared to have set the tone for Masi's justification of bringing the safety car in early when he was criticised post-race by Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.

    Masi replied: "Toto, it's called a motor race, okay?"

    While the radio chatter is not new and had been originally released by F1 in the week after the Abu Dhabi race, it had been missed by many amid the furore of the events at the time.

    Interestingly it was also only made available to the public on 16 December, hours after Mercedes had elected to drop its appeal over the Abu Dhabi result so the team could not have been aware of that chat before it took its final decision.

    Brundle, who was commentating on the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, said the resurfaced audio prompted this week shows the level of anger there remains from fans about the FIA's handling of events.

    Speaking to Sky Sports F1, he said: "It's not new news, and also I think you have to understand that it's not necessarily telling Michael Masi something he didn't already know.

    "Let's not assume it's giving Masi information he didn't already know in terms of what he could and couldn't do in terms of the lapped pack.

    "Of course it's really uncomfortable, and a lot of people are unhappy: [Lewis] Hamilton fans, Mercedes fans.

    "And you don't even have to be a Lewis Hamilton fan to think that forever he should be an eight-time world champion, because, for me, the really crucial regulation that wasn't carried out was that the safety car should have come in at the end of the following lap.

    "But we also know that unwritten rules and meetings, which shouldn't supersede anything, were: let's try not to have a race finish behind the safety car.

    "Hugely unacceptable. I met so many fans that were new to Formula 1 last year particularly, and fans in general, that were hugely upset by what happened."

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    Martin Brundle, Sky TV

    Photo by: Drew Gibson / Motorsport Images

    Brundle feels that the Abu Dhabi event showed how wrong it was that teams were able to lobby race control directly to try to get events pushed their way.

    "We cannot - and we know it's going to change - have teams getting at the referee while he's trying to make critical decisions with cars on the track and marshals and breakdown vehicles," he added.

    "The car was on fire at certain times. He's trying to manage that and he's getting lobbied left, right and centre.

    "You can imagine that on the football ground or rugby ground is completely unacceptable. And that will change.

    "It's not pretty for Formula 1 at all, but I don't think this audio changes the really uncomfortable narrative of what happened."


    The FIA is due to present the findings of its investigation into the events of Abu Dhabi to the F1 Commission on Monday.

    It is also expected to propose changes to the FIA race control structure and rules to ensure there are no repeated errors in the future.

    Masi's position remains unclear and the FIA has admitted that he could be replaced for the 2022 season.


    Brundle thinks it is difficult for the Australian to continue in his role, because of the extreme scrutiny he would be put under for every decision made about Hamilton.

    "I made a comment that changing Michael Masi won't fix the problem, meaning that it's way too big a job for one person," he said.

    "That doesn't mean to say I'm in full support for Michael Masi. I think he'll struggle to keep that position.

    "The trouble is that the spotlight will be on him, and every single decision will be analysed.

    "What happens if Lewis is up for a penalty? Will he be lenient on that? I think he's in an untenable situation."
     
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  10. william

    william Two Time F1 World Champ
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    What is missing from this transcript is Masi's answer to Wheatley: "Understood!"

    This indicates that Masi was taking orders from the Red Bull team !!!
     
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  11. Kimi2007

    Kimi2007 Formula 3

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    Old news.

    Brundle also blamed Hamilton for the Monza incident for which Verstappen was absurdly held responsible for, but I didn't see his opinion held as gospel then.

    Further, new fans of racing are always going to find situations like these upsetting, especially when a popular driver that brought them into the sport like Hamilton is effected, because new fans don't understand the in's and out's of racing, and how it's much more complicated to follow everything, unlike in stick and ball sports. That's just the way it's always been.

    I can't tell you how many times new race fans are shocked to learn that cautions are luck of the draw variable, that instantly erase gaps between drivers, or how many times new fans ask why penalty that was incorrect can't be reversed like in other sports.

    One thing that pisses me off is pundits that show know better acting like officials altering the rules and applying them inconsistently started in Abu Dhabi, and that this is some massive controversy here. There isn't. Much more scandalous things have happened in F1.

    Wanna talk bs about the rules, Brundle? How about McLaren being caught doing the race equivalent of doping in 2007, and they and Hamilton-Alonso being allowed to participate in the final WDC races anyways? THAT was a total farce if I've ever heard of one, but it was minimized because Ferrari were defrauded, and it was a British team and driver involved in the cheating.
     
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  12. Kimi2007

    Kimi2007 Formula 3

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    #1237 Kimi2007, Feb 10, 2022
    Last edited: Feb 10, 2022
    Uh, no. :rolleyes:

    If Masi and the stewards were taking order from RBR, they sure had funny way of showing it in their officiating up to the point of the final lap in Abu Dhabi.

    When Hamilton should've been excluded from the sprint race in Brazil and made to start from the back of the grand prix, he was given a 10 grid spot slap on the wrist. When Hamilton was too clownish to get by Max the first time the latter was forced to give the position back, Max was made to give it back again for what was the officials mistake. Then at the start when Hamilton cut the course plain as day, he was given no penalty for a mirror image of the exact same thing Max given one for in Jeddah.

    And of course, the kicker being when Russel and Kimi were stranded and a full SC was clearly in order, and a VSC was done instead, as Toto told Masi "no safety car! It interferes with our race!".

    Of course, all of that was soooo different. Always is when Hamilton is involved. :rolleyes:

    If people honestly think the stewards and Masi outright wanted to manipulate the title for RBR after all things that went against them in the final 4 races, they're ****ing high.
     
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  13. Kimi2007

    Kimi2007 Formula 3

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    Why would anyone want to officiate in F1 right now? You've been put on notice that if you penalize a driver with a huge social media following, you're going to be a target for their fanbase, and you'll need police protection from the craziest ones.

    Particularly, every race official knows now to stay completely clear of Hamilton, and not rule to penalize him, or make rulings that aren't to his benefit, or else his social media mob will tar and feather you, and slander the sport. Is if the guy wasn't getting enough special treatment.
     
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  14. werewolf

    werewolf F1 World Champ
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    Sounds like Masi was simply motivated to end the race under green, "if at all possible" ... to honor the pre-race agreement with all the teams.

    Should Masi have set that agreement aside, denying the teams and the fans a green finish for the season ... simply because one team bungled their pit-stop opportunity? Of course not. No one knew the outcome, Masi certainly did not "dictate" the outcome ... he simply exercised his authority to end the season racing under green, just as the teams wanted and the rules allowed.
     
  15. Bas

    Bas Four Time F1 World Champ

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  16. Mosin

    Mosin Formula Junior

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    Ive lost count how many races ive seen finish under safety car. to be honest, its expected, and although dissapointing, it has never been controversal. Teams want to compete under fair rules, other wise why compete?

    We will see what the FIA say at the end of it from its investigation.

    Lets just agree that if Masi was with in his powers, we can expect no rule changes / amendments or new rules to be made and no extra help ( Cause nothing was wrong right??? ) given to Masi, and it'll all be great and we can expect the same finish to all races that might finish behind the safety car in all future and only move lapped cars between 1st and 2nd..

    So we can also agree that if they do change/ make new rules or amend current ones to prevent it happening ever again ( The new FIA's presidents own words... ), we agree Masi was wrong, cause why would we try to prevent some thing happening again if it was exceptable? no reason to prevent it happening again if its all legit and perfectly by the book. Agreed?

    Sorted, see you after the investigation.
     
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  17. Bas

    Bas Four Time F1 World Champ

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    Of course not.

    What can be done is the rules re-written to be clearer. The current rules allow for different interpretations.

    IF they get re-written, and the same happens after that and it contravenes the rules, then Masi or whoever is in charge then, will have broken the rules.

    If I drive 120 kph on the road today, it's perfectly legal. If they change the rules tomorrow, I wouldn't have broken the law, will I?
     
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  18. Kimi2007

    Kimi2007 Formula 3

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    Um, no again.

    First off, the SC is not near as much a factor and used nearly as much in F1 as it is in other racing series like Indycar or NASCAR (as examples). F1 has had only had one world title fight end under a SC, and that was in Brazil 12', when only 2 laps were left in the race. What Masi faced was an unprecedented situation. 6 lap of racing left, which should clearly be enough time to restart the race, with a world title on the line. He was under serious pressure.

    Why in the world the SC period drug out as long as it did and the waive by not being done the lap before is still unexplained. Had the race ended under yellow and Hamilton have won the title, RBR would've rightly pointed out that the course had been clear for the last 3 laps, and that would've cemented the accusation the FIA submit to Mercedes and Hamilton, and wanted to protect Lewis.

    Further, IF the race had been restarted and one of the backmarkers caused some sort of accident with Hamilton or Max, there would've been hell to pay, and then people would've been asking "why didn't you waive the lapped cars by!? They shouldn't have been there!"

    If it ended under caution, RBR would've accused the FIA of protecting Lewis. If it's restarted with lapped cars and they cause an accident with one of the leaders, either team is livid that they weren't waived by. If the race is restarted without lapped cars, Mercedes are livid if Max manages to overtake Hamilton.

    Masi was in a no-win situation.

    What could've and should've been done is Mai should've sat the drivers down and explained what specifically he would do if there was a late race caution, so each team could factor that into their strategy. Again, that was Masi's failing, not some conspiracy to give Max the title. If anything Masi and the stewards showed a clear preference and incredibly charity to Hamilton's driving all seasons.

    Then again, this could all also be said of Bahrain, Track limits, no track limits, no track limits but no overtaking beyond track limits that we said aren't there, back to track limits, all in the course of one weekend. Now THAT was some ****ty race officiating that Masi deserved to be put on a cross for.
     
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  19. ktu

    ktu F1 Rookie

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    #1244 ktu, Feb 11, 2022
    Last edited: Feb 11, 2022
    Bull. A couple years ago Hamilton was being penalized so much that he was reaching the points limit. No police protection needed. Hamilton was penalized multiple times last season. No police protection needed. MASI is the cause of everything he is dealing with right now. HE made the decision.
     
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  20. ktu

    ktu F1 Rookie

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    How can the SC rules be so clear for years but all a sudden unclear on that last lap?
     
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  21. Mosin

    Mosin Formula Junior

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    Would depend, IF it was changed to 100 kph and you went down it at 120 kph you would be breaking it, but your comparing apples with oranges, because if you was the first person ever to use the road and go to the limit and then it got change? Or was it the same since 1950 - till today and a million people have also done 120 kpm on the same peice of road, lets just call that road the Turin Grand Prix in 1950 and every other GP up until the Abu Dhabi GP 2021?

    Because we all understand any road users doesnt actually mean all, but means it is actually " At Masis discretion " so it might be 120 kph for you, but it might be 100, we dont actually know, it might or it might not, cause any doesnt mean all and its upto who ever is directing the speed limit action for todays to decide, because its a very very special day, its just for today, we are going to selectively apply speeds limits to each individual driver and not prewarn any body, or give any indication of such change, then after we have selectively fined people ( Also at Masis discretion ) we will make sure it never happens again and the limit is fixed and applys to ALL.

    Right.
     
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  22. Kimi2007

    Kimi2007 Formula 3

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    I have no idea what the actual **** you're talking about.
     
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  23. Bas

    Bas Four Time F1 World Champ

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    that makes 2 of us. Nodded off halfway through the first paragraph, though.
     
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  24. ktu

    ktu F1 Rookie

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    You two sound like Masi reading the rule book
     
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  25. Alexweav79

    Alexweav79 Formula Junior

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    Again you continue to miss the point. Could mercedes have taken this whole thing out of the FIA's hands? Yes or no? The answer is yes, they could have.

    Again I say, the FIA has never been consistent, ever. You act surprised they weren't consistent that day. Geeze, your idol lost, its over. Time to move on. Seriously.
     
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