F1 race director Michael Masi got Abu Dhabi wrong, says FIA
Former Formula One race director Michael Masi made a “human error” but acted in “good faith” during the controversial safety car restart at last season’s title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, a report published by the governing FIA found yeasterday.
The Australian allowed only the lapped cars between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton to unlap themselves as he prepared to get the race restarted after a safety car period.
That gave the Dutchman the chance to pass Hamilton for the lead on the last lap which denied the Briton an unprecedented eighth title and sparked a backlash from fans.
“The process of identifying lapped cars has up until now been a manual one and human error led to the fact that not all cars were allowed to unlap themselves,” said the report, the result of an investigation into the events in Abu Dhabi, which was presented at the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council ahead of the 2022 season-opening race in Bahrain.
Charles Leclerc heralded a return to form for Italian team Ferrari by seizing a stunning pole position yesterday for the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix. The Monegasque lit up the timing screens with a lap of 1min 30.558sec to beat Verstappen by 0.123sec. The world champion had gone fastest in the final practice session earlier yesterday.
“It feels good, the last two years have been incredibly difficult for the team and we knew this year’s rules would be an opportunity for us,” said Leclerc after taking his 10th career pole and second in Bahrain.
The FIA, in response to the report, had developed software that will automatically inform lapped cars allowed to move back on to the lead lap that they may unlap themselves, the report said.
The wording of the regulations has been clarified to say “all” lapped cars must unlap themselves, instead of “any” lapped cars. The report also acknowledged that the rules governing a safety car restart were open to interpretation.
“In combination with the objective to finish under green flag racing conditions applied throughout the 2021 season, the report finds that the race director was acting in good faith and to the best of his knowledge given the difficult circumstances,” said the findings.
Masi was last month replaced by Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas, who will alternate in the role, as part of an overhaul of the FIA’s refereeing system.
It also included the setting up of a virtual race control centre similar to football’s VAR.
Meanwhile, reigning world champion Fabio Quartararo dominated a chaotic Indonesia Grand Prix qualifying session to take pole position in Mandalika yesterday as MotoGP returned to the country for the first time in a quarter of a century.
SA’s Brad Binder of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing qualified fourth just 0.366sec off the pace.
Six-times MotoGP champion Marc Marquez was set to start today’s race in 15th place after crashing twice in Q1 but moved up a spot when Franco Morbidelli received a three-place grid penalty for breaching practice start procedures after FP3.