The excitement after the decisions in the 2021 Formula 1 final was huge. In the end, they cost race director Michael Masi his job. Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko finds this consequence “not right”, as he emphasizes in the “RTL/ntv” interview.
After the controversial final, Michael Masi was the focus and was heavily criticized. The Mercedes camp in particular was annoyed with the race director and his decisions shortly before the end of the race. Before the last lap, he only let the cars between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton lap back, then released the race.
On the fresher tires, Verstappen grabbed the Mercedes competitor and won his first world title. Hamilton was dethroned. Mercedes foamed, protested, appealed – but failed. The world association rolled up the events in the past few weeks – and took Masi from the post.
The fact that the sting at Mercedes is still deep was made clear at the car presentation of the Silver Arrows. “We have a score to settle,” said team boss Toto Wolff. In an interview with our “RTL” reporter, when asked if he cried a tear for Masi, he answered tight-lipped: “No.”
The Australian gets more support from Red Bull. “You have to look at your work over the years,” says Helmut Marko in the “RTL” interview. Now the information system for the race director will be broader, he will have access to a kind of video referee with all kinds of data and images and an experienced assistant like Herbie Blash, Marko lists. “If Masi had all that, he would have made his decision easier.”
The system in Formula 1 must become more objective
In order to relieve the future race director, the position shared by Nils Wittich and Eduardo Freitas, the radio communication between the race director and the teams will also be reduced.
This is how the influence should be reduced, which was “admittedly from us and Mercedes massively” there, says the Austrian openly. However, Marko believes that Masi would also have benefited from the new regulations. Overall, he sees the ousted rather as a “pawn sacrifice.”
The discussions surrounding the Abu Dhabi final had shown that the whole system had to become more objective. “We’ll have to see whether the planned steps will really work that well,” says Marko.
Red Bull didn’t believe in Hamilton’s resignation
Lewis Hamilton made no secret of his dissatisfaction with the final and Masi. For weeks, nothing was heard or seen from the Brit on social media and public appearances. Rumors of resignation were circulating all over the country. Marko never believed that the ex-world champion would resign.
The reason: “We had a clear indication: There was no excitement on the driver market,” explains Marko. “If Hamilton had informed his people of his resignation, they would have looked massively for a replacement. That was not noticeable in any way.”
So the whole action was probably something to show how much he was not satisfied with the decision, says Marko. “Some of this behavior also led to the replacement of Masi.”