Karun Chandhok says Abu Dhabi result must stand after Michael Masi removal

Former Formula 1 driver and Sky pundit Karun Chandhok has said that the result in Abu Dhabi last year that saw Max Verstappen win the world title on the final lap must stand, even if Michael Masi has now been removed as Race Director.

Many see Thursday’s announcement from the FIA that Masi has been removed as Race Director with immediate effect as an admission that he got the call wrong over letting only certain cars unlap themselves in the final stages of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix back in December.

Indeed, that’s even led some to call for the result to be overturned but most cannot see that happening – nor will it – and Chandhok has explained why it must stand that Max Verstappen was the victor.

“I don’t believe the result should be overturned,” said Chandhok during an interview with Sky Sports News.

“I think there are too many variables involved in that process just to clearly say ‘if the lapped cars had been left there, Lewis would have 100% won’.

“I don’t think you can definitively say that. Even Mercedes would definitively not be able to say that. So I don’t think the result can be overturned.

“I think what they should have done was not allow the lapped cars past and that would have been a fair conclusion.

“If he (Verstappen) had the lapped cars in between, he wouldn’t have got past the lapped cars until probably Turn 7 and by that stage Lewis would have gained probably a second and a half.

“They would have ended up at the last corner, when you look at all the numbers and the simulations of the teams, basically alongside each other and it would have been a dramatic finish anyway.”