© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Producer of Netflix’s ‘Breaking Point“ James Gay-Rees was asked if race director Michael Masi was thinking of ‘Drive to Survive’ when making decisions at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
At the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, race director Michael Masi ignored the rules that govern the use of the Safety Car, and basically served Max Verstappen the race win and the 2021 title on a silver platter.
Masi’s controversial and unjust decisions also prevented Lewis Hamilton from winning his record-breaking eighth F1 championship.
In the penultimate lap, when it became obvious what Masi’s decisions will mean, Lewis Hamilton noted to his race engineer Peter Bonnington that the he feels the race is being “manipulated”.
The immediate explanation that was given was that Masi did what he did to prevent the race from ending under the safety car, which if the rules had been followed, it would have.
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Many observers, fans, and even some drivers, later said that the decisions were made to make the race artificially more exciting, with some even saying they were made so that Netflix’s popular F1 docuseries ‘Drive to Survive’ would be more interesting.
Recently, The Guardian asked producer of Netflix’s tennis docuseries ‘Break Point’, James Gay-Rees, if he believes Masi had Netflix in mind while making his decisions.
“I think [Masi] was just under a lot of pressure and got things slightly wrong,” he said, unsurpsisingly.
“I don’t think he was thinking ‘What does Netflix want?’” Gay-Rees concluded.
