Michael Masi is no longer F1 race director
Australian Michael Masi has been replaced as Formula One race director and offered a new role within the sport’s governing FIA in the wake of the title-deciding safety car controversy in the seasonending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Masi’s former job is to be split between Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas as part of a restructuring unveiled by the FIA’S president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
Masi’s future was thrown into doubt after he altered the safety car procedure to allow for a last lap of racing that cost Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton a record eighth title and handed a first to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Masi got only the lapped cars between race-leading Hamilton and second-placed rival Verstappen out of the way after a late-race crash, allowing the Dutchman to pass Hamilton on the last lap.