Red Bull boss Christian Horner contacted Michael Masi twice since Abu Dhabi 2021 and defends ex-race director’s decisions
Mercedes’ 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Lewis Hamilton was leading en route to an all-time record eighth F1 championship with the race set to finish behind a 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Safety Car, unt෴il Masi’s call to allow lapped cars to unlap themselv𒀰es.
This decision allowed Red Bull’s 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Max Verstappen to overtake Hamilton and claim his first F1 title in a seaꦕson-fi𒅌nale where the tremors are still being felt.
Red Bull team principal Horner w🅰as asked♍ on the Beyond The Grid podcast if he has spoken to Masi, who has lost his job, since. He replied: “Yes, on a couple of occasions.
“I felt that it wasn’t fair, the way he had been♔ treated, because I think that he’d done the best that he could, following the principles.
“The only thing he screwed🅰 up on was not allowing the final two cars at the back of the f🌞ield to unlap themselves.
“As we saw recen🌱tly in Monza, nobody wants to see a race diluted a🍬nd finished under a Safety Car.
“So he did everything to get that race going again, which would have been a 🔴horrendous finish to꧋ the season, to see it just diluted and peter out under a Safety Car.
“I think the reaction after the race, there was a huge amount of abuse sent to him, there were death threats to h💟is family. No individual deserves to go throu💎gh that."
"Michael Masi did the very best he could"
“I think that Michael, in difficult circumstances, did the v𝐆ery best he could throughout the year," Horner said.
“We ha🔯ve to remember he had very﷽ little support in that race control tower and was left very much on his own up there.
“When you follow the process of how theyꩵ’re looking at how cars run, it’s back to pens and pieces of paper.
“He didn’t ha🌜ve all the backup that the teams have, for exampleജ, with our operations rooms, and the software.
“It was still a very rudimentary process.”
Masi lost his job with the FIA in the aftermath.
This season at the Italian Grand Prix, Verstappen won as the racꦐe ended behind a Safety Car - the correct inte⛎rpretation of the rule.
Verstappen leads the 2022 standings and can win his second con🔜secutive championship this weekend at the Singapore Grand Prix.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sp🐟orts for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
