Haas chief weighs in after Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes call for Michael Masi sacking

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Haas team principal Guenther Steiner fielded questions on Michael Masi’s future amid calls from Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes for the race director to be sacked. The Silver Arrows are still furious with Masi’s decision at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix which helped Max Verstappen with his maiden world title.

The FIA have launched an inquiry and have suggested that they could ace Masi.

Another option is to build a support network and to have a clearer outline of the safety car rules.

Haas were the first team to unveil their 2022 car on Friday and Steiner was quizzed on the topic on everyone’s lips – what should happen to Masi?

“I wouldn’t like to go to the FIA to tell them what they should be doing,” Steiner said.

“I know they are doing things but I don’t know the details, contracts and stuff like this. I don’t know their complete structure.

“We all know Michael Masi is race director but I don’t know what is the underlying [structure] and how to make it better.

“As I said, I’m pretty busy with what I’m doing with Haas F1, so I’m not getting involved in that.

“But I’ve full confidence in the FIA that they will fix it.”

Steiner has met with FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem to discuss the events in Abu Dhabi but he remained reserved during the talks.

“I didn’t give a lot of recommendations to president Mohammed,” he explained.

“We talked about it, they were private talks and I don’t want to go there.

“But I know they are diligently working on it to make it…I wouldn’t say better, which is the wrong word…to make it mainly better for whoever is the race director.

“It’s a very difficult job but I’m not here to protect Michael or anything. It is very difficult.”

Steiner also called for his team’s two drivers, Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin, to fight for points in 2022 having failed to score a single point last year.

“The expectation is just to be able to fight for points and fight with the other drivers who are in Formula 1,” Steiner said.

“With their rookie year we were always very open that the expectations were not high but that they had the opportunity to learn and to establish themselves in Formula 1.

“Now this year we have to prove that we are on the right track with the drivers.”

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