F1 | Andreas Seidl on Masi: "We're really happy with the way he is dealing with all the teams"
McLaren's Team Principal is satisfied with the Race Director's job in this and the previous seasons, and belives that those who disagree with him are influenced by the emotionality of this season
Race Director Michael Masi has been heavily discussed after the Abu Dhabi GP for the way he decided to act in the final, championship-deciding round, with even prominent Team Principals such as Mercedes' Toto Wolff openly criticising his work, and, especially, the decision to remove the safety car in the last lap of the race, allowing only part of the drivers to unlap themselves, which paved the way for Verstappen on fresh tyres to overtake Lewis Hamilton for the race lead and the title.
But not everyone was dissatisfied with Masi's calls, as McLaren's Andreas Seidl defended his choices in a media session after the race, stating that him and his team are pleased with him and how he has handled this season:
"To be honest, from our point of view, without commenting on what happened today, we appreciated the open and transparent dialogue that we have had all this year and also in previous years with Michael. We are really happy also with the way he is dealing with all the teams in the paddock."
Seidl believes that some of the bad opinions on race control could have been influenced by the way the title fight has turned out to be this season, much more emotional and heartfelt than in the last years.
"I think we need to be very careful that this insane, intense battle for the championship, which was very intense on and off track, that triggered obviously a lot of heated comments as well, is not giving also the wrong picture of the reality."
"Again, from our point of view we are very happy with how Micheal is dealing with us. He is asking for our input, alwasy has an open ear for improvement as well, and that's how I see it," he summed up.
Seidl also went on to deny the claims that Charlie Whiting, who covered the role of Race Director before Masi from 1988 to his sudden death in 2019, would have done better, adding that level of race control has always been significantly good:
"I think it's also not fair to make comments like 'in the past it was all different and better', I think it's good now and it was good in the past. It's a very tricky job to be race director in such an intense battle that we have seen this year. That's something to keep in mind," he concluded.
