Mercedes boss Toto Wolff’s Michael Masi comments branded ‘unacceptable’ by Martin Brundle

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Martin Brundle has declared that Toto Wolff overstepped the mark with his mid-race comments to FIA race director Michael Masi during the final few laps of last month’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The Mercedes team principal was left incensed by how the all-important championship decider was handled by Masi, who is facing plenty of questions over his immediate future in the sport ahead of the new season.

Lewis Hamilton led for the vast majority of the race but was cruelly denied a record-breaking eighth title after Max Verstappen reaped the rewards of a late safety car period to clinch the honours on the final lap.

Masi handed the latter a golden opportunity to fight back when he was allowed to move through the field after only the five lapped cars between himself and Hamilton were asked to overtake the safety car.

The decision immediately sparked a host of controversy as a result of the widely-held belief that all lapped cars would be required to un-lap themselves in such a situation.

Wolff was heard screaming over the radio to Masi as Hamilton desperately tried to keep Verstappen at bay on the final lap, but his protests were in vain as the result was allowed to stand in spite of Mercedes’ post-race appeals.

The 50-year-old also tried to lobby the race director into avoiding a safety car period when Antonio Giovinazzi came to a halt earlier on in the contest.

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Brundle has since insisted that Wolff was wrong to communicate with Masi in this way with a view to gaining a competitive advantage.

When quizzed on whether mid-race dialogue between the FIA and teams should be stopped ahead of the new campaign, Brundle told Sky Sports F1: “One hundred per cent.

“In the first safety car incident, when Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo broke down some way from a service road, we had Toto on the radio to Masi saying: ‘Hey Michael, no safety car’.

“[He was] trying to influence a safety decision, [it is] completely unacceptable and Toto knows that. We can’t have that.

“What used to happen in the Herbie [Blash] and Charlie [Whiting] days is they would get on the radio to Charlie and Herbie would go: ‘He [Whiting] is busy at the moment, he will get back to you’.

“Of course, he didn’t because Charlie was busy sorting out the mess that was on track and working to understand when the race could be restarted.”

There were a number of similar incidents littered throughout the campaign, with Red Bull team principal Christian Horner also guilty of attempting to badger Masi during the race in Abu Dhabi.

Meanwhile, Wolff did the same at Silverstone after Hamilton tangled with Verstappen to send the Dutchman crashing into the barriers at high speed on the first lap.

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“For me, it was one of the most uncomfortable aspects of the season,” added Brundle.

“We saw it in Saudi Arabia, Silverstone, team principals up in the stewards’ office trying to remonstrate with them mid-race. That has got to stop.

“Can you imagine a [football] manager running on the pitch and remonstrating and telling a referee the decisions he is going to be making next? No, you can’t have that.”

The ability of team principals to contact the race director is widely expected to be scaled back or even scrapped when the new season gets underway at the Bahrain Grand Prix in March.

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