Michael Masi gets fired/replaced?

I'm sure that Mercedes is STILL complaining and throwing hissy-fits over Hamilton's loss ... even though Hamilton himself questioned why he wasn't brought-in for new tires.
I'm sure that Mercedes is threatening the FIA ... still: "It's either Masi or Hamilton, one of them is leaving F1!!"

If all (or a majority) of the teams agree that the safety car rules need to be re-written, because the current rules give too much power to the Race Director ... i will accept that outcome. But any re-write of the rules will destroy the narrative that Masi "went rogue and broke the rules" (why would rules need to be re-written, afterall, if the problem was that Masi went rogue and broke the existing rules?)

 

This is exactly correct, however this fact is irrelevant to several people here because to them it’s only about their team not winning. If it had come down to Haas vs Alpine and this happened, some the most outspoken here would not have posted one word.

 

48.12 Has been honored for years. But you say its the weakest of the other rules. 48.13 and 15.3 are rarely honored, but you say they are more significant than 48.12? I'm trying hard not laugh.

You forgot to answer the question.
So would you recommend Masi to inforce 48.12, then reverse it to 48.13, then kill the previuose 2 with 15.3 the next race?

 

Do you recommend Masi use 15.3 to override 48.12 the next race?

 

The important is that what happened at Abu Dhabi gets examined in detail, the responsible punished and steps taken for it never to happen again.

I don't think it's Mercedes only that objects to the way things unfolded.

There was a clear case of abuse of power that needs to be eradicated from the proceedings.

2021 Abu Dhabi was a black day for F1.

 

You must have missed the part where i was quoting the rules, and quoting the stewards interpretation of them.
I was also quoting Mercedes earlier, of course, to prove that they expected the race to end under green.

So it's not what "i say" ... it's what all the rules, all the stewards and all FIA officials have already said (and Mercedes, too, already quoted).

Try to keep up, ok? We know it's hard for you.

I don't even understand the question. Please try it again, in English this time.

 

If it all comes down to the last 2 laps and to end in racing conditions then YES!!

 

Oooooooh, Oooooooooooh! Mr. English professor and rules expert doesn't understand the question now. Man this is the 4th post that you are stalling to answer the question. Let me try again.
Masi's handling of the rules: Inforce 48.12. Change mind and say the opposite. Change mind again and exercise 15.3. Hand pick certain cars he wants to unlap themselves.
Would you recommend Masi do this the next race?

 

I recommend that the Race Director use his full power and authority, safely, given to him by 15.3 and 48.13. If that means over-riding the option given to the race clerk by 48.12, in order to safely promote exciting racing (the exact "unlapping" goal expressed by Andrew Shovlin, speaking for Mercedes, quoted days ago) ... then YES!

Especially when ALL teams agreed to the very same answer, before the start of the race!

 

Thanks for your answer. So the next race you want Ferrari or any other team who is out of the top 2 to get denied to unlap themselves to race?
Why does it have to be the last 2 laps? If rules were followed, it can happen anytime of the race right?

 

My turn for a question:

48.12 (recognized by the stewards as the weakest of the 3 rules in question) gives an option to the race clerk.
Obviously, 15.3 gives the Race Director full authority to over-ride the race clerk.

QUESTION: If a General in a standing army over-rides a choice given-to, or made-by, a corporal ... is the General "breaking the rules"?

 

The teams didn't agree to 48.12 rules being broken before the start. Which evidence shows the teams were confused at the time. They agreed the race finish under green (given the chance). Your answer is yes. Which means you recommend SC rules to be changed at anytime if the race director wants exciting racing. And certain cars being handpicked to unlap. I don't know how the teams are gonna strategize for this. At least we know where you stand. I'm not accustomed to this new Netflix style F1.

 

Wrong again. I'm simply agreeing with Andrew Shovlin, speaking for Mercedes, about the intention/spirit of unlapping:

"This will have two important effects, firstly the cars directly behind the safety will line up in actual race order so when the race restarts they are in a position to overtake each other. Secondly, the majority of the field will be on the same racing lap, bunched together and with some of the cars on new tyres. Together with the DRS, this should create exciting racing in the midfield where cars on older tyres will be ahead of cars that have stopped for fresh rubber who are trying to battle their way up the order for points.”

EXACTLY what Masi did, and EXACTLY what was accomplished in Abu Dhabi (note the language used by Mercedes: "majority").

As demonstrated earlier, ALL teams had the FULL expectation that the race would end under green ... entirely consistent with the pre-race agreement, entirely consistent with a crash on lap 53 of 58, and entirely consistent with Shovlin's quote (above).


Simply put: I agree with the stewards on the "letter" of the rules, and I agree with Mercedes on the "spirit" of the rules. They are, after all, one and the same.

 

How am I wrong? As you said, looks like Shovlin's ideas are the same as Masi's actions. "Majority" differs from 48.12. It's not clear cut like 48.12. Majority can mean any number. Which coincides with Masi handpicking any number of cars to unlap themselves if he wants exciting racing. So you support this style over 48.12 which has been honored for years. Again this Netflix style is not my taste. If you like it, well ...that's interesting.

 

Sounds like we finally agree: Masi did EXACTLY what Mercedes described, and wanted.

And yes, I also agree with Mercedes ... the intention/goal of unlapping is "exciting racing", where cars on "fresh rubber" can directly challenge cars on "older tyres" (a simple "majority" of cars unlapped meets this goal, according to Mercedes).

EXACTLY what we saw in the final race of 2021

 

Masi was obsessed by a NETFLIX finish, and broke the rules to engineer it.

"Woe to the man by whom the scandal happens !"

New Testament.
Gospel of Saint Luke.
Chapter 17, verse 1.

It's in the Bible, Masi will be punished !!

 

Again, maybe I'm too old, can't get with this style, and I don't have nothing against Netflix. I think its unfair to the remaining competitors, and teams can't strategize if they don't know if they will get unlapped or not. Sorry.

 

I, for one, was happy the last lap was done under green flag and that the two main rivals raced at speed to conclude the season.

If letting every lapped car get through would have prevented that and it ended under yellow, that would have been awful in my opinion. I realize that it might seem as if I'm cheering for Max vs. Lewis, but honestly it's not that.

I think Masi used that same logic to determine what to do - end under yellow or under green. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Did that make Max winning inevitable? No, Hamilton might have held him up, brake checked him, who knows. They could have collided and Hamilton continued on while Max couldn't, that would have let Hamilton win. So many things COULD have happened.

I don't think there's a conspiracy to have one or the other win, I also don't think the netfilx series has anything to do with it. I think green flag racing at the end was the reason, and I'm ok with that.

 

Exacly...how many times did we see a driver in old tyres hold on someone with fresh rubber for a couple of laps? Plenty!
Elton still had the faster car and he lacked the racecraft to keep Max at bay for a single lap....just look what checo did!

 

Zak Brown's opinion: “I don't think this was a malicious decision,” he said. “So for those that might have a view that the sport’s corrupt, etc. I don't agree with that.

“Do I think potentially a different decision could have been made? Yes, probably. But I want to wait to see what the FIA comes out with.

 

The fact that they are sitting on the results of their investigation means that don't want to share the results even though they are getting hammered everywhere on social media for what everyone clearly saw as a fraudulent race (except Fchat which is not Hamilton friendly to begin with). The fact that they investigated themselves and don't want to reveal the findings for months shows that their findings are worse then the beating the FIA is taking world wide across social media for being corrupt or inept.

 

To me it looks like that the new FIA President Mohammed Bin Suyalem is calling Lewis and Mercedes' bluff. With them releasing their findings just 2 days before the start of the season, it's basically a public ''**** you'' to the pair. He won't let the FIA be put under pressure with petulant threats.

This is quite exciting if you ask me. MBS has said that he reached out to Lewis, who didn't respond back. This is the public FU.

Excellent.

 

BOOM.

 

Agree. Zak Brown doesn't agree that the sport is corrupt, dispite what some think about Merc and the FIA. He also says he is not a fan of Masi's decision.

 

Absolute uneducated nonsense! I'm sorry but this comment lacks any knowledge of racing or racecraft.

What Checo did was on a tire delta that had at most a 1 second per lap difference (likely less) to Hamilton. Fresh soft reds against 20+ lap old hards is more like a 5 second a lap difference. When you consider that the ENTIRE FIELD was separated by about 3 seconds in qualifying then you get an appreciation for how massive Max's tire advantage was. For a driver of the quality of Max the pass was like shooting fish in a barrel. There was absolutely nothing Hamilton could do to legally defend against him. In fact it was a small miracle that he ran him as close as he did but realistically as soon as they reached critical parts of the lap where tire grip was key, Max was on another planet.

I maintain that if the exact situation had happened where Max was on the softs and Lewis on the old hards nose to tail with a one lap shootout achieved by a correct following of the rules (which was possible but not exercised) then it would have been Lewis's tough luck and that's racing sometimes. As it was the real person on trial here is Masi and his questionable application of the rules. Unfortunately Lewis haters and Max fanboys can't get past their biases to look at the FIA as the villain's here.