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Components 1 is planning a brand new race-management construction in an try to keep away from a repeat of the issues ultimately yr’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
There may be widespread acceptance throughout the game that race director Michael Masi didn’t comply with the foundations appropriately throughout a late safety-car interval within the title-deciding race.
That resulted in Crimson Bull’s Max Verstappen passing Lewis Hamilton on the ultimate lap to beat the Mercedes driver to the title.
Governing physique the FIA has been looking for the groups’ views on the matter.
The inquiry launched after Abu Dhabi remains to be ongoing and no concrete conclusions have but been reached.
However sources have instructed BBC Sport that the FIA’s plans are to introduce a sequence of safeguards that may depart the race director freer to make choices in a calmer setting.
Many insiders admit that Masi made a sequence of operational errors within the closing laps at Yas Marina that had been opposite to the foundations and accepted protocols – and there stay severe questions on his future within the function.
On the identical time, it has been accepted that the Australian was left uncovered, remoted and underneath an excessive amount of stress within the ultimate laps of the race.
A help construction is being deliberate for the race director, insiders say.
That is prone to embody a barrier between that function and the groups to keep away from the direct lobbying to which Masi was subjected from the workforce bosses of each Mercedes and Crimson Bull in Abu Dhabi.
Revisions to the operations of the stewards – who’re impartial of the race director and resolve on penalties for breaches of the foundations – are additionally being thought of.
Will Masi maintain his job?
Eradicating Masi and discovering a brand new race director is a suggestion a number of the groups have made to FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, BBC Sport has discovered.
Some senior insiders say they can not see how Masi can credibly stay in his function into one other season, arguing not solely that Abu Dhabi fatally undermined his credibility, however that the errors he made there have been merely the largest and newest of a sequence over the course of the 2021 season and earlier than.
And high-level sources say that the probably situation is {that a} new race director will probably be put in for the 2022 season.
Nonetheless, there’s removed from unanimity on the matter. Different groups are mentioned be both ambivalent as as to whether Masi stays or would haven’t any downside with it, so long as a more practical help system was put in place round him.
Crimson Bull denied that that they had known as for Masi to go. Ferrari mentioned they weren’t conscious of any such request. Mercedes, McLaren, Alpine, Aston Martin, Alfa Romeo and Haas had been unavailable. Williams mentioned it “doesn’t consider it’s for groups to resolve FIA personnel”.
The drivers’ views on Masi stay unclear, though a quantity complained over the course of final season concerning the inconsistency of selections, significantly within the context of a number of the battles between Hamilton and Verstappen.
The FIA was unavailable for remark however Ben Sulayem mentioned in a letter to FIA member golf equipment after his election that he “will take all the mandatory choices after analyzing the findings of the detailed evaluation on this topic determined unanimously by the World Motor Sport Council assembly in Paris final 15 December.
“I’ll achieve this in full independence, refusing any stress from any quarter, within the sole curiosity of our sport.”
Why is that this an enormous deal?
The fallout from Abu Dhabi stays the one greatest matter going through F1 and the FIA.
The credibility of the game has been known as into query – the FIA itself has admitted it was “tarnishing the picture” of F1.
And Hamilton, who is alleged to have misplaced belief within the FIA, won’t resolve whether or not to return to F1 this yr till he has an understanding of the actions the governing physique plans to take to deal with the considerations that arose throughout 2021 over race administration.
There’s a feeling that the FIA initially believed the furore over Abu Dhabi would die down with time.
However one influential senior determine instructed BBC Sport: “Anybody pondering this is able to go away has not realised the big measurement of this occasion.”
The place is the FIA’s inquiry?
Ben Sulaymen has consulted with all of the workforce bosses to hunt their views on what went unsuitable in Abu Dhabi and what modifications could possibly be made to militate towards a repeat.
The FIA’s secretary common for motorsport and govt director of single-seaters Peter Bayer final week took half in a gathering of the groups’ sporting administrators, which the FIA says was a part of the inquiry into Abu Dhabi.
Masi chaired the assembly, however insiders say he recused himself when the topic turned to the operation of the protection automotive in Abu Dhabi and the results and ramifications of that.
It was agreed on the assembly that, in future, the race director’s actions need to be predictable – it was Masi’s improvisations round and failure to comply with the foundations in Abu Dhabi that led to the outcry after the race.
Bayer is subsequent anticipated to fulfill the F1 drivers to hunt their views on Abu Dhabi and different issues, though no date has but been set for this assembly.
Following that may be a assembly of the F1 Fee – which includes the groups, the FIA and F1 – on 14 February, at which it’s anticipated that the modifications the FIA proposes on account of Abu Dhabi will probably be mentioned.
What’s the fuss about
Hamilton misplaced out in Abu Dhabi after Masi over-rode the foundations with regard to the operation of the protection automotive, having come underneath stress from the bosses of the 2 title-contending groups.
Masi’s motivation, it’s mentioned, was an obvious try to make sure the race didn’t finish underneath warning. It had been beforehand agreed by the groups that, within the occasion of a late security automotive, ending grands prix underneath racing circumstances was a preferable end result the place doable.
However the end result was that Masi failed to use the foundations appropriately in two separate areas – over coping with lapped automobiles, and within the timing of the restart.
In doing so, Hamilton, who was on the right track to win the race and the world title, was left a sitting duck on outdated tyres when the race resumed for only one ultimate lap and Verstappen, on contemporary tyres, handed him to take the race and the championship.
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