Toto Wolff says former race director Masi was liability to F1 and disrespectful

The Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, has issued a scathing assessment of the former Formula One race director Michael Masi, whose actions were decisive in denying Lewis Hamilton a potential eighth championship last season.

Wolff said Masi was a “liability” to the sport, who was disrespectful to drivers and has still failed to acknowledge his culpability despite being removed from his role by the FIA.

At the season finale in Abu Dhabi last year Masi’s intervention, improvising with the rules around the safety car and the way cars could unlap themselves, proved key in the title fight between Wolff’s Mercedes driver Hamilton and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. It allowed Verstappen, on fresh tyres, the chance to attack and pass Hamilton on the final lap, securing his first championship in the process.

The subsequent protests from Mercedes came to nothing but the FIA, whose report cited “human error” as playing a part in the process, later removed Masi from his role. The incident has remained highly contentious and four months later it was clear Wolff was still unhappy at Masi and his actions.

“He was just immune to any feedback and even today he has not properly reflected that he did something wrong,” Wolff said. “You hear from the drivers and how the drivers’ briefings were conducted [by Masi] and some of the guys said it was almost disrespectful how he treated some of them. There is a promoter of one of the races in the Middle East who said he was so relieved he had gone because he got so much abuse from him.”

The FIA’s report fell far short of apportioning blame on Masi, instead noting the pressure he was under and that certain rules were open to “interpretation”. The furore has rumbled on ever since, distracting from