F1 2022

[Deleted member 29109]

What happened in Abu Dhabi resulted in many teams and other interested parties losing faith in the FIA. Something had to be done, and offering up Masi as scapegoat was the easy way out. For sure he ****ed up, but quite probably so would anyone else under the same pressure. I sort of feel sorry for him, but he had to go.

Incidentally, I believe cutting the direct radio line between teams and race director is one of the things that's also been announced.

The direct radio line between the teams and race director has been in place for years. It’s only recently been broadcast to the public.

 

[Beedee]

Spa was a farce but it was within the rules, which Masi didn't write.(and which have now been changed thankfully)

Yes Spa was a farce, and no, he didn't break the rules that time, but he made decisions that were fundamentally ludicrous. It was 100% obvious that no racing could possibly take place, and his decision gave free points and a win to one team - a team that on at least two occasions (and arguably more) benefited from his questionable decisions.

 

[Deleted member 15717]

Please let this be the fastest on the grid…

 

[cliveb]

The direct radio line between the teams and race director has been in place for years. It’s only recently been broadcast to the public.

Not sure what point you're trying to make.
Regardless of how long it's been in place, and whether or not it's broadcast, the abuse of that line by Merc and RB at Abu Dhabi was the primary reason that Masi got in such a flap and ended up making the bad decisions he did. I cannot believe that without those messages he would have done the same thing.

That is why the FIA have announced that it will be removed, and IMO that's a good thing.

 

[SaintHacker]

Has it actually been removed? I've read some reports that its been stopped completely and others that its just not being broadcast anymore. Obviously the director or one of his assistants will need to be able to speak to the teams during the race

 

[bobmac]

Genuine question as I can't remember but when Toto spoke to Massi, he was asking him to follow the rules about the safety car and lapped cars. Whereas Christian Horner was asking Massi to NOT follow the rules and only let some lapped cars through and to bring in the safety car a lap early to give them ''just one more lap'' Have I got that right?

 

[SaintHacker]

Genuine question as I can't remember but when Toto spoke to Massi, he was asking him to follow the rules about the safety car and lapped cars. Whereas Christian Horner was asking Massi to NOT follow the rules and only let some lapped cars through and to bring in the safety car a lap early to give them ''just one more lap'' Have I got that right?

Pretty much sums it up

 

[cliveb]

Has it actually been removed? I've read some reports that its been stopped completely and others that its just not being broadcast anymore. Obviously the director or one of his assistants will need to be able to speak to the teams during the race

What I heard was that the radio comms would go through a layer of assistants to act as a buffer between the teams and the RD.
Don't recall anything about whether they will still be broadcast.
Also read that there is to be a remote referee (like VAR in football) to assist the RD in making decisions.

 

[cliveb]

Genuine question as I can't remember but when Toto spoke to Massi, he was asking him to follow the rules about the safety car and lapped cars. Whereas Christian Horner was asking Massi to NOT follow the rules and only let some lapped cars through and to bring in the safety car a lap early to give them ''just one more lap'' Have I got that right?

Put like that, yes, that's what happened. (Although it was Jonathan Wheatley rather than Christian Horner who persuaded Masi to break the rules by only unlapping the cars between Lewis and Max, and to bring the safety car in straight away. I think all Horner said (earlier) was something to the effect of "get those lapped cars out of the way").

What you haven't made clear is the aggressive tone of voice that Toto used when telling Masi what he was doing was against the wrong. Mind you, given the consequences of Masi's decision, and considering it was in the heat of the moment, you can heardly blame Toto for his outburst.

 

[Swango1980]

What I heard was that the radio comms would go through a layer of assistants to act as a buffer between the teams and the RD.
Don't recall anything about whether they will still be broadcast.
Also read that there is to be a remote referee (like VAR in football) to assist the RD in making decisions.

That is good, VAR is fool proof...

 

[Swango1980]

Put like that, yes, that's what happened. (Although it was Jonathan Wheatley rather than Christian Horner who persuaded Masi to break the rules by only unlapping the cars between Lewis and Max, and to bring the safety car in straight away. I think all Horner said (earlier) was something to the effect of "get those lapped cars out of the way").

What you haven't made clear is the aggressive tone of voice that Toto used when telling Masi what he was doing was against the wrong. Mind you, given the consequences of Masi's decision, and considering it was in the heat of the moment, you can heardly blame Toto for his outburst.

Indeed, I wouldn't have expected Toto to politely say "excuse me sire, I don't believe your decision follows the rules, could you please reconsider. No? OK, fair enough, catch you later"

 

[cliveb]

That is good, VAR is fool proof...

 

[Beedee]

That is good, VAR is fool proof...

Worked well enough in the Euros so it could work well in most of the world. The Silverstone round however ...

 

[Swango1980]

So, what do we think the odds are on the Russian GP being cancelled? Not until September, but I imagine the FIA will need to make a decision a long way in advance of that.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

So, what do we think the odds are on the Russian GP being cancelled? Not until September, but I imagine the FIA will need to make a decision a long way in advance of that.

You would hope they would cancel asap and not pander to Putin and his cronies let alone giving Russia money through sponsorship, TV etc. Already talk of the CL coming to Wembley and even if Putin doesn't push on any further with this I'd love to see sport take a lead and say no and send a statement

 

[Canary_Yellow]

I disagree. On the whole he has done a decent job, he just lost the plot at Abu Dhabi whilst under huge pressure. I feel that by removing him the FIA have admitted things were done incorrectly and so therefore something needs to be done about the result of the race, but that clearly won't happen. I think they could have kept him on but brought another co-director in alongside to help with the decision making process. Or have 'call takers' who speak to the teams so they cannot speak directly to the race director and try to influence his/her thinking.

I realise I'm replying to this nearly a week later....

But I think the problem would have been had he stayed, that he'd be constantly accused of bias going forward, either in favour of Red Bull, or in favour of Merc (to compensate for his error).

My view is that actually the pressure on him to deliver a grandstand finale to the season was coming from Liberty, rather than him bowing to pressure from Red Bull. Just look at all the hype surrounding that final race, plus the decision to not punish Verstappen in any meaningful way after the disgraceful driving in Saudi to ensure they went into the last race level on points. I think they got it badly wrong and massively overestimated the general desire for entertainment over the integrity of sport (not inconsistent with the US approach more generally, dare I say). It's clear now to everyone that the critical role of the race director is to implement the rules consistently and fairly, I think Masi could do that, but perception is everything and a fresh start is better for everyone, including him.

 

[theoneandonly]

Nice to see the cars get a run out today and no surprise to see the RB was nothing like the launch car. The times meant nothing but I can't wait for race day.

Some nice pictures
https://www.planetf1.com/features/f1-barcelona-track-pictures/

 

[Canary_Yellow]

I'm enjoying keeping my eye on the testing, I'm sure the lap times are meaningless, but it has got me daring to dream that the likes of McLaren and Ferrari might be able to compete at the front with Merc and Red Bull. How good would that be if we had wheel to wheel racing with so many teams up there?!

 

[SaintHacker]

Interesting how many teams are struggling with the car 'porpoising', something to do with the way the new cars handle the ground effect, which they couldnt model in the sims/wind tunnel.

In other news Haas have said they will be removing all the Uralkali branding from their cars. Isn't that daddy Mazepins company? Fair play to them.

 

[Foxholer]

Interesting how many teams are struggling with the car 'porpoising', something to do with the way the new cars handle the ground effect, which they couldnt model in the sims/wind tunnel.

In other news Haas have said they will be removing all the Uralkali branding from their cars. Isn't that daddy Mazepins company? Fair play to them.

Yep!
There's also the Russian GP scheduled for late September to consider.