FIA Formula One race director Michael Masi is still feeling the heat due to the way he handled the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP's final few laps.
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Former Formula 1 driver Stefan Johansson is the latest to criticise Michael Masi. The FIA Formula 1 race director has been under scrutiny since his questionable decisions during the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP.
A late crash from Williams driver Nicholas Latifi brought out the Safety Car. However, there was no time for the lapped cars to unlap themselves.
With the final laps looming, Masi called for only the lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to make way.
This gave Verstappen – on fresh tyres – an easy run at Hamilton. And it thus handed the Dutchman the win and his first F1 world driver’s championship.
Johansson said Masi’s call made “no sense on any level” and was not fair.
“First, I guess it’s positive for F1 that everyone is chiming in; that there’s so much passion for either side, Lewis or Max,” Johansson wrote on his personal blog.
“Whether it’s intentional or not, the entertainment value of this controversy has gone through the roof.
“But I think there has to be a balance somewhere because the decisions Masi made make no sense on any level.
“His decision completely ignored any level of common sense as to what would have been a fair way to handle the situation.”
Johannson’s solution? To red flag the race and get the debris cleaned out. This would, in turn, also give every team the chance to put on new tyres.
The Swede also pointed out that Masi had done this in the previous race in Saudi Arabia. Had he done the same in Abu Dhabi, it would have made more sense.
He also said it was the latest in a series of poor calls made during the season. He further added that, up until that point, Hamilton and Mercedes were ‘flawless’.
“The only way it should have been done was by doing what you’d normally do and indeed what he did in the race prior.
“As soon as they deployed the safety car with five laps to go they should have red flagged the race.
“That’s the only way to keep it level and keep the excitement until the end. You would have had everyone come into the pits while they clear the track, put new tyres on and go from there like they did at the Saudi Grand Prix when Red Bull rebuilt half their car and put new tyres on.
“Had that been done you could have had a fair five-lap shootout for the championship. Making the decisions he did and then changing his mind completely at the very last moment absolutely handed the race on a plate to Max and Red Bull after Lewis had done a flawless race.
“This last race was just the culmination of a series of incredibly bad calls that somehow seem to have escalated as the year went on.”
