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 Purple Bull’s Max Verstappen, who was on brisker 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 target 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 12 months and communicate to him and say, pay attention, I’ve been on this sport for a very long time, take heed to the drivers, don’t all the time be cussed in your decision-making, don’t be smug,” Wolff informed the Excessive Efficiency podcast.
“I attempted that for the nice of the game and clearly additionally for us as a group, to not be weak to conditions that may very well be completely detrimental. So in that sense, simply what occurred is inexcusable.
“Now, you can 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 12 months lengthy when individuals, not solely me, tried to assist [him] in the fitting approach.
“So typically you must simply realise that somebody is simply doing his personal factor or taking his personal choices. For me, I don’t care about it any extra.”
Wolff admitted he nonetheless feels “indignant” about the way in which the championship concluded and thinks concerning 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 occasions with eight world championship titles,” he added.
“You’ll be able to argue all alongside about that 12 months, I feel Max and Lewis had been deserving champions. There have been cases throughout the 12 months the place Max misplaced some factors that he shouldn’t have misplaced.
“You have a look at Silverstone, you have a look at the crash in Monza each of them had. So each deserving champions. However on that exact afternoon in Abu Dhabi, it was unfair.”
Mercedes have Hamilton’s automobile from the 2021 showdown on show within the entrance to their manufacturing facility in Brackley.
“It’s a particular automobile as a result of it’s additionally a automobile that turned the state of affairs round after Brazil, the place we thought the championship is gone, and it was an excellent automobile after the summer season,” Wolff defined.
“It’s a automobile that reminds all of us that issues may go improper in a short time, however issues may very well be proper additionally in a short time. It’s mainly how life goes. And that automobile’s a stark reminder of all the enjoyment and all of the ache a state of affairs can deliver with it.”
