Andretti won the F1 world title while driving for Lotus in 1978
see photosMassi served as FIA Race Director since 2019
Legendary Mario Andretti has backed under-fire FIA race director Michael Massi for his decision not to red flag the race after Nicolas Latifi crashed five laps before the end of the race. Andretti revealed he would have made the same call as the Australian whose work is now in line with complaints of absence from the Mercedes F1 team, Lewis Hamilton’s silence, and social media following the race and the uproar in the British media.
Messi made the unusual call between Hamilton and Verstappen to allow the cars to open themselves and immediately brought the safety car back to ensure a lap of racing. But Verstappen had pitched for new tyres in the safety car period, while Hamilton, who had led the race comfortably by that time, was on bad tyres. With Verstappen on fresh rubber just behind Hamilton, the Dutchman pulled off a dramatic victory over the 7-time world champion on the last lap to win his first world title.
Max Verstappen was ready to lose the race and the title until the safety car turned the tide for the Dutchman
Hamilton said on the radio that the situation had been rigged and that he did not appear at the post-race press conference nor did he appear for the F1 season-ending gala, except for a brief post-race interview at Parc ferme. That was mandatory. Many believed that Massi had robbed Hamilton of a record-breaking 8th title, which would mean the Briton had overtaken Michael Schumacher’s record which had been set in 2004.
“I would have done exactly that. It’s as simple as that. Well, there’s a lot of buzz that the race should have been red flagged. Well, you know what? This crash happened with six laps to go. Under normal circumstances, the track should have been easily cleared in two laps, and then you allow the backmarkers to open themselves. But unfortunately, in Formula 1 you have to rely on the locals to do the safety work. And they were very slow in cleaning up the situation,” he said in an interview with Planet F1.
What many didn’t realize was that when Massie decided to call the safety car, he assumed the car would be quickly cleaned, but then it caught fire which complicated his situation as he did not want Hamilton to. And Verstappen decides the Titanic duel. Security behind the car.
“This is a time when I really think Michael Massey made the right decision to allow the lapped cars to unlap themselves that were in front of the top five competitors and then to make sure that the bottom of the green The race was over, because it was the most anticipated race of the season from a beautiful season and to finish behind the safety car for that race would be a tragedy in my opinion, and thus the excitement was born. It was racing and it was fair. Sometimes you wish you had done things differently. But that’s no different than what happened. Game first, you know – you can argue this until the cows come home, Said the former world champion.
“That’s right, Max Verstappen earned what he found!” Where Max overtakes on the last lap, Lewis left the door open. I think he could have preserved it, but he underestimated, how close Max was in his mirror quite honestly, so Lewis can’t complain and everything went the right way, in my opinion, given the circumstances. happened,” he said.
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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has hinted that Lewis Hamilton may not return to F1 after becoming disillusioned with what happened in Abu Dhabi, but recent signs suggest he will indeed return. But it looks like Michael Massi will lose his job as FIA race director.
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