Toto Wolff claims that Michael Masi used to be disrespectful to the drivers with his behaviour and never took criticism.
The finale of the 2021 season was massively controversial. Michael Masi made some questionable calls, which apparently affected the result of last year’s championship.
Upon FIA’s investigation, Masi was removed from his position. There was a mutual sentiment amongst the paddock that under Masi FIA has made some inconsistent calls.
Thus, speaking on Masi, Mercedes Toto Wolff doesn’t have pleasant words to say about him. He even claimed that Masi disrespected the drivers.
“I had lunch with him on the Wednesday before the race,” Wolff told the Press Association, “and I said to him that ‘I really want to tell you, without patronising you, that you need to take criticism on board and develop from there. Lewis does it every day, but you are a guy who always seems to know better’.”
“It wasn’t about influencing him but really giving my honest feedback that he shouldn’t block outside opinion as simply being wrong. You hear from the drivers and how the drivers’ briefings were conducted [by Masi].”
“Some of the guys said it was almost disrespectful how he treated some of them. There is a promoter of one of the races in the Middle East who said he was so relieved he had gone because he got so much abuse from him.”
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Michael Masi became a liability
Wolff further says that the Abu Dhabi GP became a stain on F1. Thus, the Mercedes boss claims that Masi became a liability on the sport, and had to be gone.
“He was just immune to any feedback and even today he has not properly reflected that he did something wrong,” said Wolff. “He was a liability for the sport because everybody kept talking about Abu Dhabi and the race director.”
“The race director should not be somebody that people talk about, but someone who does the job and makes sure the race is run according to the regulations.”
Also read: Lewis Hamilton had to back off from fighting for P3 in the Australian GP
