Max Verstappen launches staunch Michael Masi defence after 'unfair' removal

Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen has launched a very firm defence of former Race Director Michael Masi, saying that he has been thrown under the bus with his removal from the role, and that the decision is ‘unfair.’

The new season is fast approaching with testing underway in Barcelona this week but there remains plenty of chatter around what happened in Abu Dhabi last December, with Masi’s late Safety Car call paving the way for Verstappen to take the world title away from Lewis Hamilton on the final lap.

It was hugely controversial and, indeed, the FIA have decided to remove Masi from his role for the coming campaign, with them also introducing other structural changes to the Race Director position.

That all said, though, Verstappen has been very vocal in his backing of Masi, and has said that it is unfair that he has lost his job over what happened back in December:

“Everyone always tries to do their best job and everyone can always use help,” Verstappen began at Thursday’s lunchtime press conference at testing in Barcelona.

“As drivers, we have the whole team behind us.

“For me, it is really unfair what has happened to Michael because he has really been thrown under the bus.

“Of course, people talk a lot about what was decided in Abu Dhabi but can you imagine a referee in whatever sport has a coach or equivalent screaming in his ear all the time, yellow card, red card, no foul… it is impossible to make a decision.

“So I think in the first place, that F1 already allowed that, that team members could talk to him whilst making decisions is very wrong because it needed to be Michael making the decisions on his own without having people screaming in his ear.

“For those who did sack him to allow that in the first