© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
The chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association Alex Wurz says he wishes “we would have had a decision over the 2021 World Championship crown free of third party influence”.
Near the end of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, race director Michael Masi ignored Safety Car rules and protocols, and basically handed the race win and the world title to Max Verstappen.
Former F1 driver and chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association Alex Wurz says he’s “not a fan” of the decision that have been made.
“The call for a Safety Car after the Nicholas Latifi crash was within the protocol and best practice, hence justified from a safety and sporting regulation point of view,” Wurz told Planet F1.
“Other options like the Virtual Safety Car or Red Flag could have been applied, yet a SC seemed the most appropriate and probable call.
“To reverse the announcement ‘lapped cars not to un-lap’ to change within one lap to ‘certain cars to un-lap’ and the consequent handling of this Safety Car process was unchartered territory and as such I am not a fan of this decision.”
While the Austrian believes both drivers deserve the championship, he would have liked the final decision to be made on the track and “free of third party influence”.
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“I believe Max is a great driver and deserves the title, but so would Lewis,” Wurz added.
“I wish we would have had a decision over the 2021 World Championship crown free of third party influence.
“But as we cannot turn back time and with Mercedes dropping their appeal, we have to live with that situation and aim to make the best of it now and learn from it and ensure that decision making is optimised.
“The key stakeholders should work together to ensure that we have a robust framework and process in place to reflect the principle and spirit of any rule set, to have a fair playground, ensure fair sporting events do unfold based on a clear decision-making process and protocol for even such fast and challenging situations like we seen in Abu Dhabi.
“Of course, rarely a race situation can be compared exactly to other situations and decisions, so it remains difficult, and there will always be a grey zone, but the collective goal has to be to narrow it down the best possible, to support the persons and decision-making.
“Ultimately helping the sport to be a fair fought sporting competition of the best drivers and teams in the world,” Wurz concluded.
