Red Bull chief Christian Horner names Michael Masi’s ‘only mistake’ before brutal FIA axe

Russell excited to get started with Mercedes

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Max Verstappen’s last-lap overtake on Lewis Hamilton in the final race of last season handed him the 2021 Drivers’ Championship in incredible circumstances. But although Red Bull boss Christian Horner believes Verstappen’s victory was the correct result, he acknowledged that FIA director Michael Masi did make a mistake in the build-up to his driver’s title triumph.

Hamilton and Verstappen went head-to-head in Abu Dhabi on the final day of the 2021 calendar tied on 369.5 points in the Drivers’ Championship standings.

Despite Verstappen starting the race on pole position, Hamilton had worked up a 10-second lead by the time there were just five laps left.

However, a crash by Williams driver Nicholas Latifi meant that a safety car was deployed, allowing Verstappen to change tyres and close the gap on Hamilton – although there were five lapped cars still in between the duo.

Masi’s famously controversial decision to allow Verstappen to unlap himself essentially gave the Dutchman a free run at the title, which he gratefully took on the last lap.

After the race, Masi was widely criticised for his decision-making and as a result the race director was recently axed by the FIA.

And despite Verstappen taking home the title, Horner has admitted he thinks Masi should have allowed the two lapped cars behind the Dutch prodigy to also unlap themselves like the five between Hamilton and the Red Bull driver did.

“Was it right to fire him based on pressure that was placed on him from a rival team? That for me was wrong,” Horner told the BBC of Masi.

“That’s tantamount to bullying. It’s passively aggressive.

“Looking at that incident, it wasn’t a big crash and the driver was not injured.

“The car was near an exit [in the barriers] and it always looked like the likelihood that it would be cleared up, and there would have been no problem releasing all seven cars rather than just five.

“If they’d have released all seven of them, would you have had a problem with it?

“It would make no difference to the outcome of the championship if they’d got all seven out of the way.

“The only mistake you could argue he made was not releasing the back two cars, that he could’ve done easily, but it had no material effect on the race.”

Verstappen ended up winning the title by eight points to deny Hamilton a record eighth title.

The Brit will get another attempt at the Drivers’ Championship this season after his stay with Mercedes was confirmed in February.

The new season starts in Bahrain on March 18-20.

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