Surer: Masi only dropped because of ‘outside pressure’

Former F1 driver Marc Surer believes that the FIA should have shown support for former race director Michael Masi.

As part of a Race Control restructuring by the FIA following the controversial 2021 Abu Dhabi GP, Masi has left the race director role which will now be shared and rotated between two people, with a virtual Race Control also to be set up, comparable to VAR in football.

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But while many believed that Masi’s position was untenable, Surer thinks that the FIA could and should have backed him, but instead gave in to outside pressure.

| Michael Masi will be replaced as #F1 race director for the 2022 season. pic.twitter.com/zW5B7sIluj

— Planet Sport (@PlanetSportcom) February 17, 2022

“I think it was an overreaction of the FIA to get rid of Masi,” he told Formula1News.co.uk.

“Because overall over the whole season and over the last years he did not do a bad job.

“I think [the FIA] needed a new organisation to take pressure from the race director but it didn’t need to replace him, because I think a lot of decisions are made under pressure and you have no time to decide and you have the team managers in your ears trying to influence you; that was just too much, I can imagine why all this happened.

“So, why replace Masi? It was because of the pressure from the outside and not because he did a bad job. He made maybe some bad decisions yes, but not a bad job.”

The new race director duo will be made up of World Endurance Championship race