Michael Masi’s future as Formula One’s race director remains in the balance following a crunch meeting of the sport’s major players in London on Monday.
Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, and his Red Bull counterpart Christian Horner, arrived at F1’s headquarters at St James’s Market awaiting the outcome of the FIA’s inquiry into last year’s controversial finale which saw Max Verstappen take the world championship.
But two months and two days after the contentious Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – a race Hamilton said was “manipulated” following Masi’s handling of a late safety car period – the Australian’s fate is seemingly to be determined, while the FIA’s investigation is still ongoing.
FIA president Mohammed ben Sulayem chaired the four-hour summit and is expected to address the continued fallout from Abu Dhabi later this week – with a restructure of race control expected.
One source told the PA news agency: “The meeting was inconclusive. Not a lot of progress has been made.”
It is also understood that Masi was present for the talks.
Hamilton, described by Wolff as “disillusioned” after missing out on his eighth world title, will make his first public appearance since the debacle in the desert on Friday when Mercedes launch its new car at Silverstone.
In a statement, the FIA said: “The FIA president led detailed discussions of the 2021 Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
“Feedback from the Commission on matters raised will be incorporated into the President’s analysis and he will publicly present news of structural changes and action plan in the coming days.”
One school of thought is that Masi could be forced to take up a lesser role, with Portuguese Eduardo Freitas moving across from the World Endurance Championship to replace him.
But the under-fire Masi has found the support of a number of drivers in recent days, with four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, British driver Lando Norris and his McLaren team-mate Daniel Ricciardo all speaking up on his behalf.
In the final stages of the race on December 12, Masi ordered only the lapped cars between Hamilton and second-placed Verstappen through, providing the Dutchman, on fresh tyres, a shot at passing Hamilton – who was on old rubber.
Away from the continued Abu Dhabi fallout, the FIA did confirm a resolution has been found to stage three sprint races at Imola, Spielberg, and Interlagos.
The winner of the shortened race – which determines the grid for Sunday’s Grand Prix and was first introduced last year – will now receive eight points instead of three.
Meanwhile, the FIA confirmed that no points will be awarded unless at least two laps have been completed without a safety car.
The new rule comes into force following last season’s two-lap, rain-hit Belgian Grand Prix which ran entirely behind the safety car.
The first pre-season test starts in Barcelona a week on Wednesday ahead of the opening round in Bahrain on March 20.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here