Wolff lashes out at Masi: 'This is a credible sport, not wrestling'
- GPblog.com
Many people haven't forgotten the actions of Michael Masi during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and Toto Wolff is one of them. He thinks that Masi was too focused on entertainment and not on racing.
In Abu Dhabi, the race director played quite a big role, but Masi probably would have preferred to be less in the spotlight. In the final laps, a safety car came on the track due to Nicholas Latifi's crash and Wolff was not happy with that. In addition, the cars that sat between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen had to overtake the safety car and the Dutchman's new tyres were making Mercedes sweat.
Eventually the Red Bull Racing driver was able to pass the seven-time world champion to win the title, but the Mercedes team boss still can't believe what happened in that last race. According to him, the decisions were made to create action and excitement. He is a fan of the Netflix series, but he feels that Stefano Domenicali understands the sport better than the Australian race director.
"We love Netflix and Drive to Surive, Stefano Domenicali is doing a phenomenal job in marketing the sport and Stefano as a true racer would have no interest in interfering into racing just for the entertainment factor," the Austrian team boss said in the Press conference on Mercedes' YouTube channel. "I cannot judge the pressures of the race director, but in any case we are so credible as a sport because it is sport and it is not wrestling."
Radio traffic must stop
Earlier, the Austrian let it be known that he wants the radio traffic between the team bosses and the race director to stop. Initially this was done to be transparent, but also to provide more entertainment. According to Wolff, Christian Horner and he have gone too far and this radio traffic should stop immediately. Whether this will actually happen remains to be seen.