Brundle reveals "heated conversations" at FIA in Monaco: 'Explains a lot'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
It was a strange sight. While the rain seemed to be getting lighter at the start of the race, the FIA still decided not to go. At first, it seemed that the showers would ease, but after the race ended there appeared to be a special cause. This was because the starting system had broken down due to the rain, causing a lot of hassle within the race control team.
Martin Brundle knows this too. According to the former F1 driver and analyst of Sky Sports things were even heated at the race control. "A couple of reliable sources tell me that there were heated arguments in Race Control during the impasse as we all looked on unsure of what was happening."
Should Masi have stayed on?
According to Brundle, this also explains why there was so little information and why the safety car was not doing laps to explore the track, something that normally happens prior to a rain race. According to Brundle, fundamental mistakes were made by the race control in Monaco.
According to the Brit, there needs to be a team of experts, with someone who goes over the track and the systems and someone who keeps communication with the teams. "What happened to Michael Masi in the aftermath has made the job a poisoned chalice and that'll take some fixing if indeed that's possible. He was the right man for the job, Charlie's understudy, but frankly, F1 and the FIA were winging it at times and the whole thing skidded off track with regard to dominant race control and refereeing, which is essential."
According to Brundle, the FIA and F1 have let the arbitration around the races get out of hand and it will take time to resolve everything again. The situation in Monaco was another example that replacing the race director does not make for better races with strong race management.