Mercedes boss Toto Wolff claims he tried to assist former F1 race director Michael Masi all through the 2021 season.
Masi’s dealing with of a late Security Automobile within the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix season finale allowed Crimson Bull’s Max Verstappen, who was on more energizing tyres, to make a last-lap overtake on Lewis Hamilton to win each the race and the world championship.
Hamilton had dominated the race and appeared on track to assert a record-breaking eighth world title till Masi’s incorrect utility of the Security Automobile guidelines controversially modified the result of the championship.
Masi was faraway from his position after an FIA inquest decided there was a “human error” on his half regardless of concluding he had acted in “good religion”.
Wolff, who beforehand described Masi as a “pathological egomaniac”, revealed he supplied the Australian recommendation all through the season.
“I actually tried to talk to Michael and information him all alongside the yr and communicate to him and say, pay attention, I’ve been on this sport for a very long time, hearken to the drivers, don’t all the time be cussed in your decision-making, don’t be boastful,” Wolff informed the Excessive Efficiency podcast.
“I attempted that for the great of the game and clearly additionally for us as a staff, to not be susceptible to conditions that might be completely detrimental. So in that sense, simply what occurred is inexcusable.
“Now, you might say the empathy ought to make me realise how he feels. I realise how he feels and I do know that’s not good, and dangerous. However he may have thought of all of it yr lengthy when folks, not solely me, tried to assist [him] in the correct means.
“So generally it’s important to simply realise that somebody is simply doing his personal factor or taking his personal selections. For me, I don’t care about it any extra.”
Wolff admitted he nonetheless feels “offended” about the best way the championship concluded and thinks in regards to the controversy “each week”.
“I primarily give it some thought as a result of I feel Lewis ought to have deserved to be the best of all instances with eight world championship titles,” he added.
“You possibly can argue all alongside about that yr, I feel Max and Lewis had been deserving champions. There have been situations through the yr the place Max misplaced some factors that he shouldn’t have misplaced.
“You take a look at Silverstone, you take a look at the crash in Monza each of them had. So each deserving champions. However on that individual afternoon in Abu Dhabi, it was unfair.”
Mercedes have Hamilton’s automotive from the 2021 showdown on show within the entrance to their manufacturing facility in Brackley.
“It’s a particular automotive as a result of it’s additionally a automotive that turned the state of affairs round after Brazil, the place we thought the championship is gone, and it was an excellent automotive after the summer season,” Wolff defined.
“It’s a automotive that reminds all of us that issues may go fallacious in a short time, however issues might be proper additionally in a short time. It’s mainly how life goes. And that automotive’s a stark reminder of all the enjoyment and all of the ache a state of affairs can deliver with it.”
