A month late but time to move on

IT ONLY took 97 days to write up seven pages stating mostly the blindingly obvious about the final race debacle in Abu Dhabi. By the FIA’s arthritic standards it was almost a sprint.

They should have published the report when they threw their chief official Michael Masi under the bus last month. It would have drawn a line under the situation rather earlier than two hours before the first qualifying session of the year.

That aside, I don’t go along with some shrill voices here that the report was an inadequate whitewash. Or that Mercedes deserved an explicit apology.

They had already been handed what they wanted most: Masi’s head. A life ruined for trying to referee fairly, to satisfy a team’s understandable desire for redress over the manner in which they believe Lewis Hamilton was robbed of an eighth world title.

As well as putting into print the sweeping changes they outlined last month to the race directorship — two new incumbents and an experienced adviser in old hand Herbie Blash, a review system, a limit on radio exchanges — the FIA’s report struck a decent balance. They admitted ‘human error’ while also stressing that Masi ‘acted in good faith’.

The Australian erred in his decision-making but, in fairness, he did not want a great championship to finish under a safety car. He was procedurally wrong. But teams and officials had previously agreed that racing should go ahead whenever possible. That consideration must also be born in mind.

The report also stated that he came under ‘immense pressure’ from ‘distracting’ radio exchanges from the Mercedes and Red Bull camps.

All fair points. But change the result? No, it is sport, and at some stage you have to get on with life. Tell me, was Maradona’s Hand of God goal chalked off? Any serial FIA-bashers, or one-eyed Hamilton fans, should remember that Masi has lost his job and his status, and received death threats.

What more do you want? Blood?