FIA admit Michael Masi's job under threat after Abu Dhabi Grand Prix farce

The FIA have admitted Michael Masi’s role as race director is under threat, following the controversies of last season’s Formula 1 finale at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The world championship looked set to go to Lewis Hamilton for a record eighth time after he held a comfortable leading heading into the final six laps.

However, chaos struck after the lowly Nicholas Latifi crashed resulting in the deployment of the safety car late on.

The controversy then came as Masi ordered a number of lapped cars between leader Hamilton, and his title rival in second place Max Verstappen to take over the safety car to all but wipe the Englishman’s once unassailable lead.

This meant both Hamilton and Verstappen were left to play out a one lap shootout in order to decide the title, which the latter prevailed thanks to a much fresher set of tyres.

The controversy surrounding Masi’s decision to allow the lapped cars past sparked outrage in the Mercedes camp, and the wider Formula 1 world.

Mercedes did lodge two appeals against the result which were subsequently both unsuccessful, and then agreed to withdraw a third after the FIA revealed that there would be a ‘robust’ review in the finish.

Reports also suggested that the Constructors’ champions had offered to drop their appeal in exchange for the sacking of Masi but this has since been denied.

The governing body announced this month that a detailed investigation into the Abu Dhabi debacle would be taking place, with the newly appointed FIA's head of F1 Peter Bayer in charge.

Since the investigation Bayer has confirmed to Australian journalist Gerhard Kuntschick that Masi’s job could well be under threat.

He said: “Michael did a super job in many ways. We told him that. But also that