Michael Masi

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Michael Masi (born 1978) is an Australian motorsports official. Since March 2019 he has served as the FIA Formula One Race Director.

Early life

Masi was born in Sydney in 1978 and is of Italian descent. Growing up in the suburbs of Fairfield and Canada Bay, Masi initially studied marketing at TAFE before his roles in motorsport.^[1]

Career

Masi began his career in motor racing volunteering for Super Touring teams while still at school. He worked as deputy race director in the Supercars touring car series^[2] and at Rally Australia.^[3] In 2018 he was appointed by the FIA as the Formula Two and Formula Three deputy race director and was appointed deputy to F1 race director Charlie Whiting.^[4][5]

Following Whiting's sudden death before the 2019 Australian Grand Prix, Masi took on the role of Formula One race director.^[6] In this role Masi, oversees the logistics of a Grand Prix weekend, ensuring all cars, tracks and drivers conform to FIA regulations before, during and after a race.

Notable controversies as race director

2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix race restart

Masi defended his decision to restart the race with two laps remaining from a standing start, saying there was no reason not to resume racing.^[7] When asked why Verstappen's accident warranted a red flag but Stroll's similar accident only warranted a safety car, Masi stated that he wished to resume racing after Verstappen's accident had been cleared, but there were insufficient laps remaining and insufficient time to clear Verstappen's accident under safety car conditions.^[8][9]

2021 Belgian Grand Prix issues and criticism

Masi admitted to mistakes and received critcism for the way he ran the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix. Firstly, Masi admitted he was wrong to start the final segment of qualfying on time following a heavy crash for Lando Norris at the start of that session.^[10] On race day due to poor weather and after numerous delays Masi made the decision to run two full laps behind the safety car before abandoning the race on the third lap which Masi said was a genuine attempt to go racing,^[11] though media and drivers criticised his decision to hold two laps under the safety car in still-raining conditions, calling the race a "farce" and an attempt to fulfill the requirements for awarding points. They argued that points should never have been awarded, with seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton amongst the critics.^[12][13] Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Alfa Romeo Racing criticised the decision to award points for the race.^[14][15][16]

2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix criticism

During the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the penultimate race of the season, the race was interrupted by two red flag periods. After the first standing restart, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen were involved in an incident where Verstappen overtook Hamilton off the race track, shortly after this a crash by Sergio Perez resulted in a second red flag period. This left the cars lined up with Verstappen in first, Esteban Ocon in second and Hamilton in third. Initially, Masi offered to re-order the cars with Verstappen and Ocon switching places. This was later amended to offer to move Hamilton to second and Verstappen to third. This left the proposed order as Ocon, Hamilton and Verstappen. This was proposed in lieu of an investigation into Verstappen overtaking Hamilton at the first standing restart. This was only offered to the Red Bull Team and was not put to the other two teams involved in the changing on the restart order, Alpine and Mercedes. Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner compared the actions of Massi to "like being at the local market", Horner also went on to say "It felt like today the sport missed Charlie Whiting [Masi's predecessor]".^[17][18]

2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix controversy

During the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the last race of the season, Masi was involved in a safety car procedure controversy.^[19][20][21] On lap 56 of the race, during which Lewis Hamilton was leading, Masi allowed only the five cars directly in front of championship contender Max Verstappen to unlap themselves before the restart. This allowed Verstappen to then overtake Hamilton and win the 2021 World Drivers' Championship.^[22]

Mercedes protested the race result, alleging that Masi violated safety car procedure by allowing the cars directly in front of Verstappen to unlap themselves, and no others, and that according to regulations the restart should have occurred the following lap, which would have resulted in Hamilton's victory.^[23] Stewards dismissed the protest on the grounds according to article 48.13 and 15.3 in the F1 sporting regulations, that the Race Director has the "overriding authority" to amend any rule regarding safety car procedure as they wish, and to declare Hamilton the winner for leading at lap 57 would retrospectively shorten the race.^[24] Mercedes lodged their intentions to appeal the ruling.^[25][26] Following the FIA's announcement that it would conduct a "detailed analysis and clarification exercise" of the incident and its admission that the controversy was "tarnishing the image" of the sport, Mercedes decided not to pursue their appeal.^[27]

References

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