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Wolff ‘not interested in having a conversation with Masi’
Toto Wolff has no interest in speaking to FIA race director Michael Masi about his handling of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, calling his decisions at the end of the race “unacceptable”.
Masi opted to allow the five cars between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen to un-lap themselves, setting up a one-lap shootout between the two title rivals that Verstappen won on fresh soft tires. The regulations state either no cars should be allowed to un-lap themselves or all lapped cars have to, but Mercedes opted against pushing ahead with an appeal as it would have been heard by the FIA.
Despite that decision at the end of last week, Wolff made clear his anger at what he describes as Masi “robbing” Hamilton of the title, and says he doesn’t want to discuss it with the race director.
“I’m not interested in having a conversation with Michael Masi,” Wolff said. “What he has… the decisions that have been taken in the last four minutes of the race have dropped Lewis Hamilton of a deserved world championship. His driving in the last four races particularly was faultless. He had a commanding lead in Abu Dhabi from the get go. He won the start and he never gave the lead away again. And robbing him in the last lap of the racing, is unacceptable.
“That’s why from a personal standpoint, from a professional standpoint, I cannot… my values, my sense of integrity, just isn’t compatible to the decisions that have been made on Sunday, and it is up to the FIA to decide going forward how these decisions can be avoided.”
Wolff remains keen to reiterate that he has no issue with Verstappen becoming world champion, but simply the manner of the way the FIA created such a final-lap scenario when it appears to contravene its own regulations.
“I would have been totally OK with Max and Red Bull winning the championship on Sunday. This situation has nothing to do with Max, he is a worthy champion, his driving is exceptional, and Red Bull are fierce competitors, and I have the greatest respect of the people working there. This has nothing to do with them.
“But I would love to sit here and (have) avoided all these discussions and the damage that has been done to the sport by unjust, unsporting, unfair decision making on Sunday. The FIA needs to decide how they’re going forward. We had a good dialogue with the FIA over the last few days, the commission in place I have trust and faith that we will formulate together with other teams the right decisions and actions to avoid such a scenario in the future.”
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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