Masi gone from F1

[jm doc]

RB Will said:

PhilAsia said:

Lewis had 40 lap old hard tyres

Max had brand new soft tyres

WTF did any reasonably intelligent person expect to happen with tyres that were 3 seconds a lap quicker?

2021 WDC


Farce...

I expect that with very little time on his hands, Toto shouting in one ear and Horner in the other it was a very stressful situation and he didn't have time to sit there and think about who is on what tyres and how long they have been on them and how that may effect things.

I'm not agreeing with the way things went down but I can appreciate the poor guy was probably just doing his best in a mega stressful situation. I don't think he did anything maliciously and don't think he deserves all the abuse he is getting.
I very much expect if it had been the other way around this all would have been forgotten about on here months ago and people wouldn't be saying Hamilton WDC x8*

Toto shouting in one ear and Horner in the other it was a very stressful situation and he didn't have time to sit there and think about who is on what tyres and how long they have been on them and how that may effect things.

You have posted some of the most incredible crap on this thread but of all of the posts, this is the one I loved the best. Poor Michael Masi, those two nasty team principles telling him what to do. "break the rules for me"... "Don't break the rules"

"I'm so stressed. It's so difficult to decide which one to listen to"

Totally understandable, we all would have struggled with that momentous decision, obviously just pure human error and clearly acting in complete good faith when he made that decision.

[jm doc]

Bradgate said:

I would never condone or seek to justify threats or abuse but I also have zero sympathy for Masi.

His incompetence / cheating / corrupt actions (take your pick) almost destroyed the sport I have followed since I was 15. He deserves to have lost his job, and he deserves his public disgrace. Whatever really happened that day has been covered up and buried so we may never find out. If Masi had a shred of integrity he would tell us the truth. Until then, I will continue to believe that Masi was part of an organised attempt to fix the outcome of the World Championship and to rob Mercedes & Sir Lewis of the titles they won fair & square on the track.

Absolutely, but I would add that when you understand the links between people and the way they use those links, it's easy to see how this happened.

[911r]

jm doc said:

RB Will said:

PhilAsia said:

Lewis had 40 lap old hard tyres

Max had brand new soft tyres

WTF did any reasonably intelligent person expect to happen with tyres that were 3 seconds a lap quicker?

2021 WDC


Farce...

I expect that with very little time on his hands, Toto shouting in one ear and Horner in the other it was a very stressful situation and he didn't have time to sit there and think about who is on what tyres and how long they have been on them and how that may effect things.

I'm not agreeing with the way things went down but I can appreciate the poor guy was probably just doing his best in a mega stressful situation. I don't think he did anything maliciously and don't think he deserves all the abuse he is getting.
I very much expect if it had been the other way around this all would have been forgotten about on here months ago and people wouldn't be saying Hamilton WDC x8*

Toto shouting in one ear and Horner in the other it was a very stressful situation and he didn't have time to sit there and think about who is on what tyres and how long they have been on them and how that may effect things.

You have posted some of the most incredible crap on this thread but of all of the posts, this is the one I loved the best. Poor Michael Masi, those two nasty team principles telling him what to do. "break the rules for me"... "Don't break the rules"

"I'm so stressed. It's so difficult to decide which one to listen to"

Totally understandable, we all would have struggled with that momentous decision, obviously just pure human error and clearly acting in complete good faith when he made that decision.

Lol Purleaseeeeee

Why not just revert to the rules

Any one who defends masi can go and live under the rock he now resides for eternity

[carl_w]

At the end of the day

[paulw123]

He had 3 options
1. Finish under the SC - correct
2. Restart for 1 last racing lap With lapped cars still in place - dubious but could have got away with it.
3. Release only the lapped cars between LH & MV then restart the race as soon as they had just passed the leading car - just plain insanity.

Would love to hear his reasoning as I sure as hell can’t see any

[angrymoby]

paulw123 said:

He had 3 options
1. Finish under the SC - correct
2. Restart for 1 last racing lap With lapped cars still in place - dubious but could have got away with it.
3. Release only the lapped cars between LH & MV then restart the race as soon as they had just passed the leading car - just plain insanity.

Would love to hear his reasoning as I sure as hell can’t see any

or if you really want to spice up the show & throw the rule book out the window then 4. Red Flag It (which if you believe Zak Browns comments that the teams had agreed that it shouldn't end under a SC 'at all costs' then you could probably get away with that too)

[Chamon_Lee]

paulw123 said:

He had 3 options
1. Finish under the SC - correct
2. Restart for 1 last racing lap With lapped cars still in place - dubious but could have got away with it.
3. Release only the lapped cars between LH & MV then restart the race as soon as they had just passed the leading car - just plain insanity.

Would love to hear his reasoning as I sure as hell can’t see any

1 and 2 would be fair. I wouldn’t see anyone grumbling about them including RB. The 3rd option I don’t think entered masi’s head until Horner said something along the lines of remove the cars and let them race. Horner knew exactly what he was doing. Masi was just a naive muppet who got dragged into it.

It’s a shame some f1 convos are so toxic now because of this event that too place. I’ve yet to meet an RB fan who would say the situation was fair or correct it’s more a ah well is what it is. We won and we’ll take it.

[PhilAsia]

jm doc said:

RB Will said:

PhilAsia said:

Lewis had 40 lap old hard tyres

Max had brand new soft tyres

WTF did any reasonably intelligent person expect to happen with tyres that were 3 seconds a lap quicker?

2021 WDC


Farce...

I expect that with very little time on his hands, Toto shouting in one ear and Horner in the other it was a very stressful situation and he didn't have time to sit there and think about who is on what tyres and how long they have been on them and how that may effect things.

I'm not agreeing with the way things went down but I can appreciate the poor guy was probably just doing his best in a mega stressful situation. I don't think he did anything maliciously and don't think he deserves all the abuse he is getting.
I very much expect if it had been the other way around this all would have been forgotten about on here months ago and people wouldn't be saying Hamilton WDC x8*

Toto shouting in one ear and Horner in the other it was a very stressful situation and he didn't have time to sit there and think about who is on what tyres and how long they have been on them and how that may effect things.

You have posted some of the most incredible crap on this thread but of all of the posts, this is the one I loved the best. Poor Michael Masi, those two nasty team principles telling him what to do. "break the rules for me"... "Don't break the rules"

"I'm so stressed. It's so difficult to decide which one to listen to"

Totally understandable, we all would have struggled with that momentous decision, obviously just pure human error and clearly acting in complete good faith when he made that decision.

It was not split second, Masi had a huge amount of time to acknowledge what was going on - Lap 53 to Lap 58 at Safety Car lap speeds.

Lap 53: Latifi crashed.
MB decided with only 5 laps to go to keep Lewis out.
Verstappen pitted for new softs.
I thought that with 5 laps it would normally finish under SC with a track of this length. If the marshals cleared it very quickly, it was still highly improbable that racing would recommence.

Masi would have been aware of all of the above and would have known 5 laps was practically impossible.

Lap 53 through to Lap 57 was a total around 10 minutes.. A huge amount of time to consider the correct option.. A decision he was extremely familiar with as he had staunchly referred back to the rule book a year previously..!!

[Blue62]

paulw123 said:

He had 3 options
1. Finish under the SC - correct
2. Restart for 1 last racing lap With lapped cars still in place - dubious but could have got away with it.
3. Release only the lapped cars between LH & MV then restart the race as soon as they had just passed the leading car - just plain insanity.

Would love to hear his reasoning as I sure as hell can’t see any

Looked at from that perspective it’s hard to disagree, but I’ve come to the conclusion that Masi is the fall guy, I’m sure he was coerced to spice things up and to all intents and purposes it worked. Die hard fans might be disgusted and walk away, but the reality is that F1 is a global product watched by millions, it’s a show.

[TDK-C60]

Blue62 said:

paulw123 said:

He had 3 options
1. Finish under the SC - correct
2. Restart for 1 last racing lap With lapped cars still in place - dubious but could have got away with it.
3. Release only the lapped cars between LH & MV then restart the race as soon as they had just passed the leading car - just plain insanity.

Would love to hear his reasoning as I sure as hell can’t see any

Looked at from that perspective it’s hard to disagree, but I’ve come to the conclusion that Masi is the fall guy, I’m sure he was coerced to spice things up and to all intents and purposes it worked. Die hard fans might be disgusted and walk away, but the reality is that F1 is a global product watched by millions, it’s a show.

When you look at the eventual odd choice - almost designed to have a LH/MV “shoot out” on the last lap at all costs, but noting that no one could have known latifi would bin it, it seems possible someone decided from lap 53 “to make it so”, and hence it is possible Masi was doing as he was told by others. Hence NDA. He would have known the tyre situation made it “unfair” to cook the rules this way. On the other hand “toto its a motor race” shows also some self imposed power craze to engineer the end as he saw fit perhaps.

Anyway you look at it some lousy decision making.

[NRS]

paulguitar said:

RB Will said:

I very much expect if it had been the other way around this all would have been forgotten about on here months ago and people wouldn't be saying Hamilton WDC x8*

It's really sad that you think that. I'd have been appalled if Lewis or any other driver had 'won' the title that way, and I suspect so would many people who post here.

It's mostly about what was done to the sport, not particularly which drivers were involved.

I'd also have called it out as outrageous no matter who it was. Same as I called out the cover-up of the Ferrari cheat a few years back, although they did get punished the year after. So many people think it's about the driver in question, instead it's about making up the rules and ruining an entire season. Max will be happy to have the win, but he'll be disappointed how it happened I suspect.

TDK-C60 said:

When you look at the eventual odd choice - almost designed to have a LH/MV “shoot out” on the last lap at all costs, but noting that no one could have known latifi would bin it, it seems possible someone decided from lap 53 “to make it so”, and hence it is possible Masi was doing as he was told by others. Hence NDA. He would have known the tyre situation made it “unfair” to cook the rules this way. On the other hand “toto its a motor race” shows also some self imposed power craze to engineer the end as he saw fit perhaps.

Anyway you look at it some lousy decision making.

Masi for sure wanted to get attention in his time in F1. You'd almost never hear from Whiting apart from a few controversial decisions regarding starts etc. All the in-race stuff was left to the stewards or just done following the normal rules. Masi changed that and started making lots of decisions during the races by himself in a public manner. He brought so much of this on himself.

coyft said:

Muzzer79 said:

Calling someone out in public for shagging your wife is different from sitting behind a keyboard in your Mum's basement typing out racist abuse and death threats.

So, the grown up answer is never.

The answer probably isn't as black and white as that - humans are emotional.

However, it sure as hell isn't because someone calls a car race, or any other sporting event, wrong and you're throwing a tantrum about it.

And racist abuse is never acceptable.

I’ve already stated that threats and racial abuse are never acceptable. But a bit of “cheating toe rag” is to be expected if you don’t explain your actions.

Everyone has called out the racist and death threats as completely wrong. But of course some posters seem to think calling someone a moron is approving death threads.

[RB Will]

playamonte said:

Indeed.
Hard to believe that someone can hold such out of touch views (&) post them on an open forum.

Having said that the poster was most probably Dutch.

Why is it out of touch? I’ve not said he did the right thing, just that I can understand how he ended up doing what he did without it being malicious.

And no I’m from just down the road from Williams

[NRS]

RB Will said:

playamonte said:

Indeed.
Hard to believe that someone can hold such out of touch views (&) post them on an open forum.

Having said that the poster was most probably Dutch.

Why is it out of touch? I’ve not said he did the right thing, just that I can understand how he ended up doing what he did without it being malicious.

And no I’m from just down the road from Williams

You say you understand it because you had to deliver a production to a customer in a non-standard way. Yet the customer is the public, and you follow the rules. The team principles are not the customers, so it's nothing like your example. Just turn off the audio feed from the principles if it is distracting you, not telling them it is a race when you've just handed the WDC to one of the drivers.

[LukeBrown66]

Cant believe so called fans are still talking about this, it is done, nothing will ever change, what it does show is how remarkably easy it is to forget what is going on in the current season, (I do not follow F1 remotely as much as I once did sadly) and how utterly polarised some fans are.

However, if it took this much for you realise there is no sport in F1, then I hope you are enlightened, you may be staggered to find out that consistently the best funded team in f1 has now consistently underperformed pretty much for 10 years, despite every attempt made to make it happen!

I am not shocked by anything Masi did, he was a puppet, and the only thing I do feel is that he should spill the beans, but I would guess if he does, he will never work in the sport again and will probably face numerous fines from all sorts of people if he did so.

[Hungrymc]

vdn said:

RB Will said:

I really feel for the guy over this situation.

I don’t believe for a second he did it in order to manipulate the final result to be a Max win. As he said to Toto, it is a race and I think he was just trying to achieve something exciting for everyone. Which is an understandable thought. F1 fans forever bang on about it being boring etc. there would also have been no end of moaning if the most dramatic final race race of a season ended under a safety car so he was in a lose lose situation.

It isn’t like he just handed Max the win, he had to work for it with the overtake and defence, Lewis very nearly took it back despite the tyres.

Maybe it is because I can empathise with him having similar experience at work ( though much less important and lower profile obviously) of having to deviate from normal procedure to get the job done and being shat all over for it.

I’m bewildered at the lengths some will go to in order to try and twist reality to in some way justify what happened.

I think there is a suggestion in RB’s post that Masi just deviated from process to ‘get the job done’? I thought his job was literally to ensure the rules were applied. Incredible really how some are still desperate to find ways to justify it.

I don’t doubt that the online abuse has overstepped the mark, we have rules and laws over such things. I’m sure Masi would like to see those rules applied…..

Abuse that oversteps the law is wrong… He is a clown at best and possibly something worse. Both are true.

[Hungrymc]

911r said:

Lol Purleaseeeeee

Why not just revert to the rules

Any one who defends masi can go and live under the rock he now resides for eternity

The fact that some people equate one party asking for the rules to be applied, with the other encouraging the RD to find a way for them outside of the rules really does tell you all you need to know about how strong their bias is. So strong that facts no longer mater to them.

[PhilAsia]

RB Will said:

And no I’m from just down the road from Williams

Sounds like the regional equivalent of "Two stops short of Dagenham"

NB I know we have had our disagreements and this not directed at you or your intellectual agility in any way RB. The way it was written just sparked the comparison...

[NRS]

Hungrymc said:

vdn said:

RB Will said:

I really feel for the guy over this situation.

I don’t believe for a second he did it in order to manipulate the final result to be a Max win. As he said to Toto, it is a race and I think he was just trying to achieve something exciting for everyone. Which is an understandable thought. F1 fans forever bang on about it being boring etc. there would also have been no end of moaning if the most dramatic final race race of a season ended under a safety car so he was in a lose lose situation.

It isn’t like he just handed Max the win, he had to work for it with the overtake and defence, Lewis very nearly took it back despite the tyres.

Maybe it is because I can empathise with him having similar experience at work ( though much less important and lower profile obviously) of having to deviate from normal procedure to get the job done and being shat all over for it.

I’m bewildered at the lengths some will go to in order to try and twist reality to in some way justify what happened.

I think there is a suggestion in RB’s post that Masi just deviated from process to ‘get the job done’? I thought his job was literally to ensure the rules were applied. Incredible really how some are still desperate to find ways to justify it.

I don’t doubt that the online abuse has overstepped the mark, we have rules and laws over such things. I’m sure Masi would like to see those rules applied…..

Abuse that oversteps the law is wrong… He is a clown at best and possibly something worse. Both are true.

True, surely ANY abuse is allowed, just not ALL abuse?

[PhilAsia]

LukeBrown66 said:

Cant believe so called fans are still talking about this, it is done, nothing will ever change, what it does show is how remarkably easy it is to forget what is going on in the current season, (I do not follow F1 remotely as much as I once did sadly) and how utterly polarised some fans are.

However, if it took this much for you realise there is no sport in F1, then I hope you are enlightened, you may be staggered to find out that consistently the best funded team in f1 has now consistently underperformed pretty much for 10 years, despite every attempt made to make it happen!

I am not shocked by anything Masi did, he was a puppet, and the only thing I do feel is that he should spill the beans, but I would guess if he does, he will never work in the sport again and will probably face numerous fines from all sorts of people if he did so.

Says the guy who questions the colour and length of the grass at Silverstone ad nauseum...

[Muzzer79]

NRS said:

coyft said:

Muzzer79 said:

Calling someone out in public for shagging your wife is different from sitting behind a keyboard in your Mum's basement typing out racist abuse and death threats.

So, the grown up answer is never.

The answer probably isn't as black and white as that - humans are emotional.

However, it sure as hell isn't because someone calls a car race, or any other sporting event, wrong and you're throwing a tantrum about it.

And racist abuse is never acceptable.

I’ve already stated that threats and racial abuse are never acceptable. But a bit of “cheating toe rag” is to be expected if you don’t explain your actions.

Everyone has called out the racist and death threats as completely wrong. But of course some posters seem to think calling someone a moron is approving death threads.

Yes, I'm sure that we've travelled back in time and the messages Masi has been getting are along the lines of

"You're a moron"
"You're a cheating toe rag"
"You silly sausage"

And contain no obscenities or abusive profanity at all

I absolutely do not dispute the monumental farce that AD 2021 was, the tainted title, the theft from the true winner or complete cock-up in race procedure.

I do dispute that Masi deserves to have abuse hurled at him online as a result.