F1 | Seidl criticizes Masi over the decision not to take any action over the drivers who didn't slow down under yellow flag conditions
Andreas Seidl, McLaren Team Principal, commented on Masi's choice not to punish those who, during the Baku GP, didn't slow down under double yellows.
Andreas Seidl, McLaren Team Principal, expressed his disappointment after the situation involving Alpha Tauri driver Yuki Tsunoda in Baku, who didn't slow down during under the yellow flags, immediately after Verstappen's crash on the main straight.
The incident was initially marked with yellow flags and a safety car, only to be replaced by red flags, as requested by Red Bull. During an interview after the race, Seidl expressed his dismay over the fact that Tsunoda didn't get a penalty for not slowing down under double yellow flags.
“Simply for me, the entire field should be penalised for not slowing under double yellows, in accordance with the regulations.” Masi, FIA Formula One Race Director and head of the F1 Technical Department, explained.
When everyone said to him that the Japanese driver had done an "obvious" mistake, he replied that it wasn't that obvious because they all did it. Michael Masi will discuss it with the drivers next week in vew of the French GP.
“From my point of view, things were happening out there today which were clearly not OK,” - Seidl said - “Also putting it into the context of what we got a penalty for, for example, yesterday [in qualifying] - but again that's all we can do, we can only report it."
“If the race director thinks there's no investigation required because everyone is doing it, which is something I strongly disagree with, you need to ask Michael Masi what he's after then.”
The situation seemed, and suddenly proved, to be very dangerous after the unfortunate crash that involved Max Verstappen's single-seater. The Dutchman was leader of the race and had to retire due to a still unknown tyre failure.
Dutch heartbreak for their home hero, Max Verstappen 💔
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It was the drivers' track engineers who instantly informed them of what had happened, many were surprised that no action had yet been taken, with Leclerc calling the matter in a radio team "a joke".
Seidl said: “In general we are very happy with the job Michael is doing, which is a very difficult job but the most important thing from our side is transparency and consistency and a good dialogue which we usually have with him."
“Of course there are situations from time to time where you disagree. That's normal: we’re on the competitor side, he's on the FIA side," - he added - “But I guess if you look back now the time since he took over, I think he did a great job.”
