Formula 1: Christian Horner slams FIA for treatment of Michael Masi

Christian Horner has revealed that former race director Michael Masi has received death threats following the Formula 1 season finale last December.

Masi received a lot of criticism following his handling of the race with a lot of people believing that Lewis Hamilton was robbed of the World Championship crown.

He has since been sacked by F1 bosses with Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas taking the Australian’s place.

Red Bull team principal, Horner said: “The lack of support that was shown to Michael was disappointing, especially at a time when mental health is so prevalent.

“To hear that his family and he received death threats is not right. An awful lot of pressure was put on the FIA to deal with him.

“And I made it clear in last week’s meeting in London that there should have been more support for him. I was disappointed that nobody shared that opinion.

“I have had an exchange with Michael to wish him well. But the whole experience was very, very tough for him.”

Horner though does believe that Max Verstappen’s win hasn’t been tarnished by the controversy at the final race of the season.

He added: “Max was the outstanding driver last year. He had bad luck and things didn’t always go his way, too.

“It is too easy to get hung up on one event, and so much has been written about the safety car in Abu Dhabi.

“But, again, tactically as a team we made the right choices. Mercedes left Lewis out on a 44-lap old set of tyres and he was always going to be exposed at a restart.

“There was no gift for Max either. Lewis didn’t expect him to overtake where he did.

“When Max threw it down the inside into the hairpin, you could see it caught Lewis completely unawares. He left the door open.”

The new season gets underway next month with