Toto Wolff denies reports that Mercedes pushed for Michael Masi’s sacking as FIA tried to make amends after the Abu Dhabi mess.
Just a day before Mercedes was due to release its car for the 2022 season, FIA released its news of removing Michael Masi as F1 race director. The news spread like wildfire.
The news was followed by Lewis Hamilton being open about that night, after a month-long silence, during the Mercedes W13 reveal. This progress led to several reports of Mercedes having a hand in pushing FIA to make this call.
But Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff rubbished this accusation. He claims that his team had no hand in FIA being shoved to take this call.
“Us dropping the appeal linked to anyone leaving the FIA is not true. I don’t know where that comes [from],” he told the media. “I think that the restructuring with how decisions are being made in Formula 1, sporting decisions, have been made, and also technical decisions were necessary.”
“Last year was a great season, but it created a lot of polarisation with decisions that were not always easy to understand.”
Toto Wolff reacting to Michael Masi’s firing:
Yes Michael, yes, yes, Michael that is so right
— Matt Gallagher (@MattyWTF1) February 17, 2022
Toto Wolff doesn’t think the race was fixed
Due to the controversy, some outraged fans even speculated that the race was fixed. However, Wolff, who thinks that the results of Abu Dhabi were shocking, discounts that the race was fixed.
“No, nothing was fixed,” he firmly said when asked if he believed the race could have been. It was just the circumstances and decisions that were unprecedented. How they came about, certainly for us, was a shock.
“Three laps to the end, we got a message that the lapped cars were not allowed to unlap themselves. And three minutes, four minutes later, suddenly there’s two messages that came out of nowhere.”
“Now, obviously, we know what happened in the background, unknown to us (referring to radio messages from the Red Bull camp encouraging the resumption of the race).”
“And then the championship was gone. Within literally half a minute of [the] decision-making process, and that is unprecedented.”
Also read: Toto Wolff explains why Mercedes moved away from black livery before 2022 season
