Formula 1: 3 ridiculous lies to shoot down before 2022

Formula 1 lies: No. 3 – Michael Masi deserved to be fired (continued)

It starts with restricting team bosses from being able to try to influence the race director during the race. By the way, why was that ever a thing anyway? It was obvious from the start that this was going to be disastrous. Perhaps I should have sent an email addressing it…

Abu Dhabi wasn’t the only race in which the procedures followed weren’t exactly the procedures we would have expected. This time, it just so happened that the “expect the unexpected” technique went Max Verstappen’s way.

Just one week before the finale, we had Masi literally negotiating with Red Bull and Mercedes in regard to restart position during a red flag.

Sure, “It’s called a motor race”, but this was apparently called “Deal or No Deal”, which is not what any of us signed up to watch on a Sunday night in Saudi Arabia.

We then had Verstappen penalized three times for a single incident when that incident only started because of an FIA miscommunication with Mercedes — miscommunication that Verstappen literally had nothing to do with.

There are countless other examples from throughout the season, even going back to the track limits controversy to open the year in Bahrain. Naturally, in a championship fight so close, every single example had huge implications.

What Abu Dhabi did was further address the need for structural change — and because of the fact that it was the season finale, it finally got both sides on the same side on that issue.

The only thing that putting somebody other than Masi in that spot would have done is led for calls for that other individual to be fired. While it was only fitting that it reached a boiling point in Abu Dhabi, firing Masi comes across as pinning it all on one individual, no matter how the FIA may have tried to frame it in the findings report form their investigation. And that is “so not right”.