Christian Horner thinks that the FIA’s decision to remove Michael Masi from his position as a race director is harsh.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner does not support FIA’s decision to remove Michael Masi from his position as the race director. Masi came under fire after he was accused of contravening the rulebook in the Abu Dhabi GP.
Earlier this week, FIA decided to replace Masi with two race directors who will perform the role on alternate weekends. The new directors will have support from a permanent advisor as well. The governing body has also announced a ‘Virtual Safety Control Room’.
However, Horner does not believe that Masi failed to follow the rules. He said, “I think that it’s a difficult one, it’s the FIA’s business. I think it’s harsh.”
“He was in a very difficult position last year. We feel that a lot of decisions went against us last year and I think when you look at what he has at his disposal in terms of resources compared to what the teams have, there’s such a massive, massive difference.”
“It’s good to hear they’re bringing in things like the VAR equivalent and they’re bringing back one of the most experienced guys, Herbie Blash. I just think there was so much pressure put on the removal of Michael, that’s not right. That was my personal feeling.”
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Christian Horner says Mercedes should have used the opportunity to pit
After the outcome of the Abu Dhabi race, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said that Lewis Hamilton was robbed of the title. However, he denied putting pressure on the FIA to remove Masi.
Horner believes that Masi “didn’t do anything wrong in accordance with the rules.” He said that the controversy create a “smokescreen” around the outcome of the championship.
Horner said, “It’s a bit of a smokescreen because, when you look back at that race, Mercedes had two opportunities to pit.”
“There was a Virtual Safety Car and there was a Safety Car and the driver was asked to pit on both times and they left him out. And that’s what exposed him at the end of the race. Tactically, we got it right on the day and it’s those small margins.”
“When the crash came five laps from the end with Nicholas Latifi we reacted immediately. We got Max in, we pitted him for a new set of tyres. Mercedes left Lewis out on what would become 44-lap-old tyres at the end of their life. And obviously, Max had to make that pass on the last lap which he did.”
“I think there’s been a bit of hiding around some of the controversies because the bottom line is tactically we got it right. Max delivered the move and became the world champion, so it was a phenomenal result.”
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FIA should not apologise to Lewis Hamilton
Furthermore, Horner does not think that the FIA should apologise to Hamilton over the mishandling of the race.
“Was the penalty at Silverstone big enough? Were the penalties that we got at the Jeddah fair? There are so many things. I think it’s time to turn the page, move on. There’s a new president in the FIA, he’s looking to put a new structure in place and embrace more technology to help support those officials,” he said.
Moreover, the 48-year-old does not think that the role of the race director should be divided among two people.
“It’s not something personally I would do, because it would be like rotating the race engineer or the team manager in our team. You sign up, you do all the races. You want that consistency.”
“But if they’re not actually trackside, you hope they’d be supporting them remotely so they’ve got that consistency. The one thing that drivers want is a consistent application of the rules rather than penalties changing from race to race. I think that’s the challenge the FIA have got to obviously address this season.”
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