The FIA have finally announced some of their investigative findings regarding the F1 season finale debacle in Abu Dhabi. Changes were needed, and they were made, but were they the right ones? Let's take a look...
Outgoing F1 Race Director Michael Masi
Background
Disclaimer
I have avoided this topic like the plague. The discourse around it is beyond toxic, especially on social media, where people are anonymous and extremely impatient. It concerns an incident that happened over two months ago. The outcome of the race changed on the last lap, and those who did not have things fall their way were not happy. They were persistent, to be kind. They were stubborn and obnoxious, extremely rude and extremely bloodthirsty to not be. As someone who's favorite driver and team were nowhere near the title fight, I saw no point in going onto battle with a devout fan of one of the two leading protagonists. Now that the FIA have released some details on changes for the new season, I feel it's time to wrap this up in one summary, and move on. It's launch season, lets' get pumped for what's ahead and stop dwelling on what's behind...
Overview
The story is well known. The top two drivers are level on points. Lewis Hamilton has led the race from lap 1, and is likely set to cruise to victory. Then, Nicholas Latifi crashes late in the Abu Dhabi GP, the final race of the 2021 F1 season. The safety car comes out, which is fair as there is a lot of debris on track in a place that is rather narrow, so this is not contentious. The race required some intervention on the grounds of safety. But everyone knows what happened next. The safety car procedure was not followed properly, and although the ideas implemented by race director Michael Masi were understandable, they were not really legal. In the end, Max Verstappen, on fresh tires, passed Lewis Hamilton, on old tires, on the last lap and took the driver's championship.
The Outcry
The fallout from this incident has been, to put it mildly, infuriating. Immediately it was clear that there was overwhelming radio traffic directed at Masi from both Mercedes and Red Bull, who each offered their "advice" and attempted to influence the race to their benefit. In the end, Masi's actions fell more in line with what Jonathan Wheatley (Red Bull sporting director) suggested. Side note: the race director shouldn't be taking advice from anybody, but we will get to this later.
This was known within a few days of the end of the race. However, it seemed as if, randomly, the footage of this interaction (which was already published two months ago) got recycled into the news stream with profound "TeamLH" members touting this as some form of new and exculpatory evidence. It wasn't.
Now, it must be said, Lewis Hamilton himself handled the end of the race and the podium ceremony with the most class I have ever seen from a professional sportsman who had a victory snatched away from beyond his control. Lewis is an admirable guy, who is active about the need for more equality and acceptance within racing and society as a whole. Absolutely top drawer stuff, no problem. He was understandably upset with the situation, and detached himself from the F1 world over the break.
The problem is that a select group of fans refused to let go. Every day, it was #MasiOUT, #VoidLap58, #F1XED, etc., that's fine for about 72 hours after the race. After a while, you have to accept that things did not go your way, collect yourself, and move on. Lewis did that, why can't they? Two months saying and reading the same thing is exhausting; don't these people have jobs, families, other interests, or is their sole reason for existence to live and breathe the life and times of one racing driver? Personally, if someone tries to wear me down with repetition, I would be more inclined to do the opposite, because I don't feel like it should be rewarded. That is why, in my opinion, you should always hedge your bets a little bit when it comes to fandom, but that's a whole other debate...
Questionable officiating deciding outcomes of major sporting events is not new, like it or not. Take American football; do you think the 2002 Miami Hurricanes are happy with the pass interference call that ultimately let Ohio State win the 2002 College Football championship? Ask Oakland Raiders fand about the 'Tuck Rule' and see how they feel. My point is, people aren't going around saying that Tom Brady's first Super Bowl win should have an asterisk next to it, or that OSU's national championship has an asterisk next to it. Or if they are, it's not dominating the discourse of the sporting landscape. Does that make it right? No, but it does show that some people can be more accepting than others. Moving on...
The New FIA
The FIA is like the world motorsport government. It has a president and a senate, a ton of commissions and committees, and oversees many types of racing, from rallying to touring cars, endurance racing, single seaters, karting, and more. It just so happens that the president at the time of the F1 season finale, Jean Todt, was about two weeks from the end of his term when this mess occurred. So, it seemed, Todt could realistically wait it out for a week or two, wash his hands, and let the new president and administration sort it out. More or less said "not my problem" and left.
With the new FIA administration, headed by Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the first-non European FIA president, the FIA has had possibly more administrative overhaul than ever before. These aren't the people who were running the show in Abu Dhabi; those are, for the most part, gone. So, it's not a case of investigating themselves, it's a case of investigating their predecessors' actions and taking steps to correct them. This is what, to me said that the investigation would maybe yield some tangible results, rather than if this had occurred, for example, in 2020.
Was the FIA fast? No, they took a long time to officially announce the investigation, and when they did, they said, we will present our findings in February and approve them in March. That was it. Wait and see. Well, it's February, and they have revealed the first part of their plan...
What Changed?
New Race Director(s)
At the end of the day, Michael Masi no longer holds the title of F1 Race Director. This was, more or less, inevitable. Clearly he had fallen out of public favor, but also had shown that he was susceptible to the will of the team principals he dealt with. Not a good look, even the FIA could surely see that. It should be noted that Masi will be offered some other position at the FIA instead, which seems fair. He was qualified to do hos job, even if he wasn't great at it at the end of the day. The general desire for a new Race Director has existed for a long time, long before the issues of Abu Dhabi made change a necessity, rather than an option.
He has been replaced with a pair of race directors, Eduardo Freitas and Niels Wittich. Freitas was previously the race director for the World Endurance Championship (WEC), while Wittich has previously been the race director for the German DTM series. The two will 'alternate' race direction, which seems like it could jeopardize consistency from race to race, but time will tell if that is the case. Both will be supported by Herbie Blash, who was the late Charlie Whiting's longtime deputy race director, which should be a well-received addition to the lineup.
New Virtual Race Control
In addition to new race directors, the race control effort will be bolstered by an new "virtual race control" suite. This is will give the race director more evidence to review at all times ans should help minimize the 'grey areas' of the sporting regulations. It is interesting to note that there already was some component of video and data analysis going on in race control (or at least you'd think so). Either way, more data is generally positive.
Radio Bans
This was a must, probably even more important than the replacement of Masi. Now, teams will not have the ability to directly contact the race director mid-race, and there will be no more FIA radio broadcasts. Yes, it was interesting as a viewer to see how things played out, but in the end it did more harm than good and only divided the F1 fanbase even more. Without the influence of team managers trying to get things their way, the new race directors will be able to make decisions "peacefully" in the words of the FIA. IF the teams do have to contact race control, they can do, but only in extenuating circumstances and for clarification purposes only. A no-brainer in my book.
Reviewing the Safety Car Procedure
As well as the changes listed above, the FIA stated that they are going to "reassess" the procedure for un-lapping cars behind the safety car. That's great, although it seems like this maybe should've been done already? Or, just apply the procedure correctly each time.
The Verdict
Generally, I think the changes are positive. The new race directors seems to be credible, and are respected within their fields. Masi is qualified to hold an FIA position, but not the position of F1 Race Director. Herbie Blash adds a tinge of Charlie Whiting's ideas to the fray, which is always a good thing, because Charlie Whiting was respected by everyone in the paddock. More data available to race control will allow the new team to make more informed decisions, even if they may be controversial.
In the eyes of some people, I'm sure it will never be enough, but nothing will. For now, we've gotten more change than we probably expected, perhaps less than we wanted, but to me that seems a fair balance. The demons of Abu Dhabi 2021 will linger for a little while longer, or for some people, a lot longer, but that's life. And this is F1 2022; the beginning of F1's new era, with perhaps the most different cars we've had in a long time, both to their predecessors and to each other. Bring it on.
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