With this move it feels like their plan was to inflict damage on Masi than overturn the result. I also would be surprised that the FIA have said "we will take a look at this for the new season" and Mercedes are playing the PR game possibly as a way to get what they want if the rules are looked at. They will get more playing nice than butting heads with the FIA. Look at Lewis being held up as the perfect reaction to be runner up. I've seen some Lewis haters soften their stance on him, even if only for a second.
And yet, why? Do they really believe that Masi is biased against them? I think the big Austrian man needs to calm down now. The longer this goes on, the less fresh the decision will be in the minds of fans, and "the optics" will get worse and worse for Mercedes.
Masi is a liability with his Inconsistency regardless if he's bias or not. F1 is a precise sport and someone throwing curve balls puts all that good planning down to a simple dice roll. Never mind the fact If he's willing to bow to pressure, regardless of the reason or who, then he isn't the one running the show, the team principles or who can shout the loudest is.
Hearing him 'negotiate' with the teams, often with incorrect info, was painful. I subscribe to the Rugby Umpire method - my word is final and any back chat will result in further penalties against you. Unsurprisingly rugby doesn't have the same problem as football of refs/umpires being harangued by players! Make a decision (hopefully correctly) and stand by it. If its wrong, learn from it and don't make the same mistake again but don't flip flop under pressure from the teams.
FIA throwing Masi under the bus in return for Merc dropping appeal was realistically the only way this was ever going to pan out.
To me this is the worst outcome. If Max doesn't win another title* he will always be the guy who had the stewards fix it for him, even if he wins more his first one will always be the one with the asterisk. Not only that but the FIA are being allowed to investigate themselves and declare themselves in the right again. It would have been messy for everyone to see Merc drag this through the mud, but frankly F1 earned a good mud dragging. Allowing such an obvious wrongdoing to go unanswered 'for the integrity of the sport' only serves to prove that the sport has none. Whether CAS altered the result or not is largely irrelevant, it was more important that someone from the outside passed final judgement. *Who would have thought at the end of 2007 that Kimi and Fernando would never be champions again, or that 2013 was the end of the Seb era?
Or that Rosberg would call it quits after winning his title. EDIT: The rest is political, as these often are... They'll want this all done and resolved before Todt retires and the new FIA president takes over 'new leadership, new start' kinda bollocks.
How many people said that about Hamilton's first due to Glock? It's always possible with F1 but as long as Red Bull are competitive (Seem to be back after the Seb era) he will be in the running. As long as we don't decent into one team dominating for a prolonged period with one other maybe challenging I would put a bet on a second WDC. Even then that domination could well be headed up by Max Rosberg you would have thought would at least defend it or continue to race and enjoy F1. I guess he got what he wanted and the toxic atmosphere, especially with online fans, just wasn't worth it.
This should have been stamped out long before it ever came to this. There are very experienced people at the top of the chain; todt, brawn, domenicali, all with experience of being team principles of championship winning teams. All of them sat, presumably, idly by as bad decision after bad decision was made. They could have stepped in, offered advice, ensured rules were followed or further clarifications of rules or stewards instructions issued, to combat the inconsistencies which have plagued this season. Over the course of the season both teams have had decisions go in their favour and against. Both teams have lobbied the stewards for action against the other, whether during the race or chasing technical clarifications. While what happened in the last race shouldn't have happened in the manor it happened, it's not Max's fault, he and his team made some bold decisions and it paid off, mercedes played it super safe and lost, such is racing. The real loser is the sport of F1.
I don't get why they should back down, they should be shouting from the rooftops and taking the FIA all the way to court. It doesn't look bad for Mercedes, it looks bad for the FIA It was also not Lewis's fault that he was denied the win. The bold decision made by Red Bull did not win them the race, a breach of the rules did.
I would say that's a bit unfair on some of those you named. Yes blame lies with Liberty or the FIA for not addressing things earlier but at the same time the way things are run work in every other series and worked under Whiting yet don't under Masi. Todt, Brawn etc certainly weren't brought in to run the sport. The fact they're leaving in the next year (likely delay by a year) shows their primary focus was on the new design rules and making sure they were robust. Not policing the action on track. For one no one foresaw the death of Charlie Whiting. It was like the guy at the back of the office who noone know what he does but always seems to be doing something and just gets on with it. Suddenly he retires people realise he had the domain knowledge and kept everything running smoothly working away in the background. I would also say the sport misses the iron fist of Eccleston. Yes he was prone to his own tom foolery but when the hammer came down, you got back in line. He mightn't of got it right either but the bitterness would have been addressed sooner. The key why things went south was Masi himself. The provision in the rule that allowed a sole person to make a "common sense" decision based on potentially unforseen circumstances that the rules hadn't though of. That one person was arguably out of his depth and under quite a bit of pressure being constantly shouted at by two waring individuals who wanted their own way while trying to do his job. Masi, for whatever reason, decided it his job to actively "improve" the quality of the show rather than letting it play out even if it meant finishing behind the safety car. Did he bow to pressure from Honer, did he loose it with Wolff, did he want to correct his decision earlier in the race, did he see the opportunity to "spice things up"?
Masi's questionable decision making is not limited to F1, F2 has had its share of controversy too iirc...
It was Mercedes decision not to pit for fresh tires that ultimately cost them the win. Twice. They could not know how things would unfold, but neither could redbull. However redbull's strategy as a team, with checo actually in the running for once, were able to use him to that to their advantage and have the upper hand in those situations. Bottas was nowhere and could take little to no part in the mercedes strat, as had so often been the case for redbull with max this year. Red bull pulled a blinder in quali with how they towed each other, Mercedes had that chance to give Lewis a tow in the second run but again, chose not too. Not everything came down to that one single decision by Masi. Yes it played out to give red bull an advantage, but they put themselves in a place to take advantage of it. They're all there to run the sport, govern how it is run and by whom. Todt and domenicali especially, and while Brawn was there to design and usher in the new regs, he's still part of the sport and will be taking part in top level meetings. Or could just think "**** this is getting out of hand and could ruin the sport I love, I best do something.". They could all see what was happening, they could have all done something, they chose not to, and I think that was a conscious choice, with Masi under instructions to "let them race" as everyone kept bleating. F1 was the talk of the town, drama and excitement at nearly every race, one of the best title battles ever. But they got greedy, they let the reins slip too far and now we're left with the mess we have. Absolutely everyone involved in the running and governing of F1 has to share the blame. Masi may have pulled the trigger, but he was handed a loaded gun by someone(s).
Actually no. On both ocassions the call was 100% correct. Verstappen wasn't catching Hamilton quick enough and not pitting forced Red Bull to gamble. There was no guarentee Hamimton could catch and pass Verstappen safely and not pitting kept the lead and extended it beyond reach. The second time was only because the race director put his finger on the scale and as everyone now seems to agree broke the rules. It was and should have been the right call. Red Bull relied on random chance and 2 random events because they had nothing else. They were outclassed. Do nothing they lost, do something and maybe get something tho as the race went on that became a lower percentage it affected anything. That is motor racing (as is the final outcome) They were best place to take advantage of a scenario that was not possible if the rules were followed. The accident wasn't cleared in time and only by breaking the rules did Max Win. Thats like in football blaming the FA for the the ref awarding or not awarding a penalty. Yes they make the rules and discuss how they should be applied but it still falls on the Ref to ref the game. In this case Masi to run the race. I guess in football Fergie time is a thing where the ref overrules the time keeper to allow United to score but generally stuff like that is called Match fixing. Just ask Juventus what happens when your guilty of that. The probabilities said it wouldn't be cleared in time. In poker you wouldn't fold a pair of Aces with the other 2 appearing in the flop. You would be all in. The difference was Red Bull had a 3 of spades and a 4 of Spades, with the 5 of spades on the flop, the river was the 6 of spades and Michael Masi went through the deck and found the 7 of spades and gave it to them. Just because Red Bull were in the positiion to win doesn't mean the dealer should go through and let them. In case you hadn't noticed thet were racing for the first 50laps. They had been allowed to race. Other options were available such as red flagging the race. At least it would have allowed "the show" and could be argued they wanted to inspect rhe barrier or clear debris. Again not in the rules to do so but it wouldn't have been anywhere near as bad as what we got. Agree it was one of the better seasons in a very long time. It was nothing to do with being greedy. It was down to poorly written rules ironically put in place because of certain drivers actions when drfending puting other in danger. Even when the rules were put in place they where not applied consistently...track limits is the perfect example...were trak limits changed from coner to coner even day by day in some race weekends. This mean noone knew what the limits were as they changed not based on circumstance of the driver involved, but who looked at it and litterally what day of the week it was. I can only think that changing the rules mid season especially if they need to properly review and discuss what if any changes should be made. No one expected it to blow up. Using your analagy you are esentially blaming politicians and gun store owners for mass shootings in this case carried out by law enforcement itself. Some things could be much better but ultimately the idiot with the gun is squarely to blame for his actions
Red Bull pulled a blinder in quali, true. But let’s not get carried away thinking the race was not decided by that one single decision by Michael Masi.
