Toto Wolff accuses Red Bull of manipulating Masi to secure F1 title for Verstappen

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has accused the Red Bull team of manipulating Michael Masi throughout the course of the 2021 in order to help Max Verstappen secure the Formula 1 world championship.

Masi was the FIA race director for 2021 and it was his unprecedented interpretation of the safety car rules at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix finale which resulted in Lewis Hamilton being rendered a sitting duck and essentially gifted the title to Verstappen after one of the most intensely-fought championship fights in the seven decade history of F1.

The FIA removed Masi from his role after conducting an investigation into the running of the race at Yas Marina, and Wolff was pictured smiling when he left the London meeting of the F1 Commission where Masi’s fate was decided. The Austrian says he believes that Red Bull deliberately lobbied Masi and tried to build up a positive relationship with him in order to earn favourable decisions.

Jonathan Wheatley, Red Bull’s sporting director, was the target of his comments.

‘[Wheatley] turned Michael Masi the race director, not only in Abu Dhabi but before, and probably Max owes him a lot,’ Wolff says in a new two part Sky Sports F1 documentary about the Verstappen and Hamilton battle, called Duel.

Masi has been shuffled out of his F1 role by the FIA and replaced by alternating race directors in Eduardo Freitas and Niels Wittich, who move across from the World Endurance Championship and DTM series respectively. Wolff has little positive to say about Masi now.

‘I haven’t spoken to [Michael] and I don’t want to speak to him ever again,’ Wolff said. ‘His decisions were wrong and I’m sure that he regrets them. The FIA should have seen much earlier that there was a problem. There was a problem