© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Red Bull’s Sporting Director Jonathan Wheatley gives his comments on the ongoing investigation into the controversial finish of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The FIA is currently in the middle of an investigation into the controversial ending of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which saw race director Michael Masi ignore the rules and protocols of the Safety Car, ultimately allowing Max Verstappen to win the race and the 2021 championship.
On The Jack Threlfall Show, Red Bull’s Sporting Director Jonathan Wheatley gave his thoughts on the investigation.
“It’s really important that the FIA do their investigation, and they work with the teams on the investigation, and that we should all follow whatever the outcome of their investigation is,” Wheatley said.
“If we look broad brush at race direction, it’s a very, very difficult role that the Race Director and the stewards have.
“We look at that, and we talk about the consistency of the stewards’ decisions, consistency across the board, like people who watch football would like to see from referees, and it’s not always the case.”
Wheatley also says the teams need to have clear rules and their application even when it comes to other on-track incidents.
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“Of course, we’d all love it to be very, very clear. We’ve had this great, overarching philosophy of ‘let them race’, but let them race is a philosophy.
“You’ve then got the black and white of the regulations, which is often very prescribed in terms of what penalty… there’s no wriggle room in it at all.
“I think these are the areas of the sport that need to come from the very top; it needs to come from the World Motor Sport Council, who need to say, ‘Here are the principles by which we’re going racing’.
“Then it’s up to the FIA and the teams to work together to ensure a consistent set of sporting regulations.”
The Briton then admitted it’s sometimes “difficult to police” Max Verstappen as a driver, but he praised both him and Lewis Hamilton for their on-track performances.
“I think if you look at any elite sportsman, in any sport, they raise the bar, they challenge everyone around them and they make it a very difficult job to try to police them from time to time.
“Max is a pure, 100 per cent racing driver, as is Lewis. What we saw last year was a titanic battle and I hope that there’s many more of those to come,” Wheatley concluded.
