Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admitted the controversial finish to the 2021 F1 season still haunts him each day. The German looked on in disbelief as Lewis Hamilton had a record eighth F1 world title snatched from his grasp.
The Brit led for much of the race, but the Red Bull driver took the win on the last lap after a botched safety car restart. Masi was the man in charge of the race and made the decision to end the safety car period early and allow one final lap of racing. The FIA later admitted he had not handled the situation correctly and removed him from the role.
But despite the Australian no longer playing a part in the sport and being now halfway through the 2022 campaign, the controversial incident still haunts the Austrian. Wolff told the Autotrader magazine: “I think about it every day. But I have my peace with Max winning the championship, because he's a deserving champion. How it panned out, I think I have values around fairness, and especially sporting fairness.
“This is what provides my fundamental love for the sport. And then that was kicked with the feet on that particular day.” Masi was replaced by Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas who control alternate races while Mohammed Ben Sulayem took over from Jean Todt as FIA President in December 2021.
Wolff said of the 60-year-old: “I think Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the way he's hiring and recruiting, shows for me, direction. Every personality has his edges. And I think the primary objective of being transparent, providing good governance and a good framework is what I see happening.
“Are there going to be bumps on the road because Mohammed's organisation needs to fall in place and everybody needs to find their roles? Yeah, for sure. But I'm happy with how it's going. They are open minded. They're not opinionated. For me, transparent, honest and have integrity.”
One of the biggest talking points prior to F1’s summer break was the introduction of a new rule to help reduce porpoising. Mercedes have suffered significant issues with the violent bouncing this season and pushed for changes, while Red Bull and Ferrari felt the opposite, and claimed the silver arrows only pushed for change because could not solve their issues themselves. Wolff meanwhile, thinks Ferrari and Red Bull’s objections to measures aimed at eliminating porpoising are based on keeping Mercedes out of the fight for victories.
“I think they would rather continue to be the two of them at the top than have a third guest at the party,” he told Motorsport.com. Regarding any competitive advantage for Mercedes as a result of what the FIA decided, the Austrian added: “When you put pressure on the FIA there is always a potential advantage, in everything, and we have done that in the past.
“But on this issue I see it very differently. On several occasions there has been no hesitation in making changes to the regulations for safety issues. I might also add we have now understood the porpoising problems with our car, we got pole position for the last race, but that doesn’t change anything. It’s irrelevant – we are talking about something that damages the health of the drivers.
“I strongly believe countermeasures have to be taken to make sure next year this problem will be a distant memory. The FIA has no choice, it has to do something, and I think in the face of this problem having teams lobbying for or against a measure is completely irrelevant. It is a medical issue and it has to be answered.” F1 will resume after the summer break with the Belgium GP on August 28.
