Fixing F1 not just about replacing Michael Masi: Toto Wolff

Fixing F1 not just about replacing Michael Masi: Toto Wolff

Toto Wolff and Michael Masi

Over the course of the entire 2021 Formula 1 season, tension and stakes were high between Toto Wolff’s Mercedes and Christian Horner’s Red Bull. With all to play for entering the season finale, matter got bad to worse for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes when Michael Masi decided to make one of the most controversial decisions in the history of the sport. Yet with many problems evidently visible, Wolff feels changing the race director will not be the ideal solution. 

Michael Masi; Toto Wolff
Toto Wolff and Michael Masi

Not only that, the stewards had been criticized for perceived inconsistencies in what they felt amounted to acceptable wheel-to-wheel racing. Not only did Michael Masi’s name was brought to limelight because of the incident in Abu Dhabi but even before, some of his decisions seemed to have affected Red Bull or Mercedes in one way or the other. 

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What was opinionated by Toto Wolff? 

Toto Wolff
Toto Wolff

“It’s a bigger problem, my values are simply not compatible with the decisions that were made,” said Toto Wolff, as quoted by the Spanish branch of Motorsport.com as per PlanetF1. “It is not just about replacing the race director. The whole decision-making system must be improved. 

“It’s one thing to drive hard and have different points of view between drivers and teams, that’s normal. But inconsistent decisions inevitably lead to controversy, much of it totally unnecessary.” 

Michael Masi
Michael Masi

The boss of the Brackley-based team added that “inconsistencies in the implementation of the rules on track” were present at different stages of the season, not only in Abu Dhabi, and that while for Mercedes “sometimes it hurt us and sometimes we were luckier”, in Abu Dhabi those issues in decision making were “catastrophic” for Mercedes. 

“But this last decision had the biggest impact, and from a sports perspective, it was catastrophic because it decided the World Championship,” Wolff stated. 

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