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Toto Wolff, sports director of the Mercedes Formula 1 team, has once again criticized former race director Michael Masi in his new F1 book. The 52-year-old Austrian disagreed with a controversial decision by Masi in the closing stages of the Abu Dhabi GP, the last Grand Prix of the season, and once again expressed his anger in “The Formula”.
To date, the Abu Dhabi GP is known as the most controversial Grand Prix in the history of Formula 1. Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton competed for the world title in the very last race and started it with the same number of points. The seven-time world champion seemed to be on his way to an eighth title for a long time, which would make him the most successful rider in history, but a crash by Canadian Nicolas Latifi threw a spanner in the works.
The competition jury led by Masi deployed the safety car and reassembled the pack, but also allowed doubled drivers between Verstappen and Hamilton to overtake a new lap. As a result, the Dutchman, who had just come in for a new set of rubber, ended up just behind Hamilton, who was driving on old tires. Moreover, Masi made another controversial decision by restarting the race with a lap to go, while Latifi's Williams had not yet been cleared. On newer tires, Verstappen was able to take over the lead from Hamilton with a clever maneuver and the Dutchman became world champion in Red Bull for the very first time.
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“When I think about it again, it is so unfair what happened to Lewis and the team that day,” Wolff told Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg, who together The Formula wrote and both worked as sports journalists The Wall Street Journal are employed. “And that one individual didn't follow the rules and just let it happen. While he is a completely unimportant person: he lives on the other side of the world and no one is interested in him.”
Hamilton: “When I see a clip of that race, it still feels like a robbery”
Wolff has not yet forgiven Masi, who has since been dismissed as competition director, after two and a half years. “He really was a complete pathological egomaniac. It's drama and glory, but this is what makes the sport so irresistible. Everyone saw the drama of an eight-time world champion being stripped of his title. I would have preferred to see it end differently, but the race has undeniably left its mark on history.”
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