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Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says he “had an exchange” with Michael Masi “to wish him well” after the FIA removed him from the position of race director.
Red Bull continues their campaign of defending Michael Masi following his removal from the position of race director, due to the controversial decisions he made a the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which allowed Max Verstappen to easily win the 2021 title.
First Red Bull team boss Christian Horner defended Masi’s decisions, then Max Vestappen said his removal was “harsh”, and now Horner says Masi did not receive enough support throughout the controversy.
“The lack of support that was shown to Michael was disappointing, especially at a time when mental health is so prevalent,” Horner told Sky Sports F1.
“To hear that his family and he received death threats is not right. An awful lot of pressure was put on the FIA to deal with him.
“And I made it clear in last week’s meeting in London that there should have been more support for him. I was disappointed that nobody shared that opinion.
“I have had an exchange with Michael to wish him well. But the whole experience was very, very tough for him.”
This is the first time that it was ever made known that Masi received death threats, and of course if that’s the case, the people doing this should be seriously condemned. There’s no place for this kind of behaviour in sports or in the rest of civilized society.
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However, it’s interesting to hear that Horner reached out to Masi, especially after Verstappen revealed he has sent a text to Masi after his removal was announced.
It’s somewhat interesting that several prominent Red Bull personalities seem to have quite a close relationship with the person who was tasked with basically ‘refereeing’ Formula 1 races. Especially in light of Lewis Hamilton‘s recent plea to the FIA to make sure the stewards are “non-biased”.
Horner was then asked if he thinks Verstappen’s title win was tainted by the controversial finish of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the finish that directly led to Masi’s removal.
“In the UK media a lot has been made of it because Lewis is obviously a British driver, but I really don’t think so,” the Briton said.
“Max was the outstanding driver last year. He had bad luck and things didn’t always go his way, too. It is too easy to get hung up on one event, and so much has been written about the safety car in Abu Dhabi.
“But, again, tactically as a team we made the right choices. Mercedes left Lewis out on a 44-lap old set of tyres and he was always going to be exposed at a restart.
“There was no gift for Max either. Lewis didn’t expect him to overtake where he did. When Max threw it down the inside into the hairpin, you could see it caught Lewis completely unawares. He left the door open.”
Here Horner again conveniently leaves out the fact that Hamilton was left on old worn down tyres, while Verstappen was right behind him on fresh softs, and this happened only because Masi decided to break the rules of the Safety Car.
Horner then went ahead with another attempt at mind games, by implying there could be problems between Hamilton and his team-mate George Russell.
“Lewis is going to be massively motivated this season, but he’s going to have more competition internally because he’s got a hungry competitive young team-mate who is going to be snapping at his ankles.
“Life is not going to be getting easier for him, that’s for sure. George is going to be a big factor this year.
“He has been blisteringly quick in all the junior categories, he’s one of the standout talents and dealing with his drivers will give Toto a headache this year,” Red Bull’s team boss concluded.
