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Great to see Michael Masi has been released from the role of F1 Race Director!

I predicted that he would be “reassigned to an alternative role”

A good guy by all accounts, but he simply lacks the good judgement necessary for such a powerful, high-pressure position. He had to go.

A pity they didn't recognise his lack of support last year, his CV would have been the better for it maybe unless Marko had bought him which wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.
We shall never know.

Verstappen and Masi have written their way into the history books for all the wrong reasons.

It’s a bit of a mess as it’s an admission that it was all a bit wrong but it can’t be undone

I keep getting news stories about the controversy on my Facebook page with thousands of comments so the anger and disappointment from some quarters isn’t going away soon

Anyway looking forward to this years championship with two talented Brits driving for Merc which could cause even more controversy

It sounds like a plan...

The problem wasn't that one human being made mistakes. He was put in a role where mistakes were inevitable. The volume of data and video available has exploded in recent years, communications channels have opened up, and the number of races has increased. The pandemic then introduced many new circuits, and compressed the season, which putting constraints on international travel: the perfect storm of more preparation being needed, and less time to complete it. Clearly too much for the travelling and ever-changing team to manage and give consistent decisions.

- the remote 'back office' team will be better able to provide consistent views on video and data to stewards and race directors
- having two race directors will allow one to prepare ahead for the next race, while the other race director manages the live weekend

And for good measure the farce of Spa running behind a safety car now can't be repeated - two laps need to be raced for an event to award half points.

I'm sure that we'll still have ex-drivers disagreeing with decisions - the line between hard racing and breaking the rules will be as fine as ever. Let's hope it's less of a moving target this coming season - and that procedures are applied with some predictability.

Will

I hope they give clarity regarding the late breaking/cutting across at corners that Max got away with/made use of so effectively last season. Ie if it’s ok then great, let’s see some enthusiastic blocking being returned without penalty by Lewis et al. And if it’s not, let’s stop it. Just want clear rules/guidance so they and we know what is permitted…
HB

I only hope that Masi going wasnt the price for keeping Hamilton in F1. It would be apalling if that were the case.