Poll Should Michael Masi resign?

Should Michael Masi resign?

  • Total voters
    17
  • Poll closed .
I know this is off topic, but at the restart they could line all the cars up in order and then set them off one at a time with the time gap on the last racing lap completed. This supposed to be the "pinnacle" of motorsport, so a green light could flash to set each car off and we retain any advantage.
 
With aggregated times race director could actually manipulate the race even more harshly.

Driver A leads driver B by three seconds. Red flag. Aggregated times uses, driver B beats driver A in the start, opens a gap of ten seconds. Safety car, gap minimized and driver A wins.
 
FB said:
I know this is off topic, but at the restart they could line all the cars up in order and then set them off one at a time with the time gap on the last racing lap completed. This supposed to be the "pinnacle" of motorsport, so a green light could flash to set each car off and we retain any advantage.
Click to expand
Who would want to watch that? Check out the xxxx event out of 10 thread and see which races got higher scores.
 
The poll thread after each event. Where people get to rate the event. Brilliant drivers just driving as good as their cars allow is usually considered very boring. We watch this to see legends deal with whatever gets thrown their way.
 
Just do it the old way, red flag, restart, aggregate times. Some of those races where driver X had to finish a set number of seconds ahead or behind to win were epic. Possibly helped by Murray Walker commentating in the period before he got too old but carried on anyways.
 
sobriety said:
Just do it the old way, red flag, restart, aggregate times. Some of those races where driver X had to finish a set number of seconds ahead or behind to win were epic. Possibly helped by Murray Walker commentating in the period before he got too old but carried on anyways.
Click to expand
The problem with that is that, there used to need to be a massive accident (usually on the first lap) for the red flag to be flown. In the 1980s and 90s, you would see cars littered around the circuit as they crashed/expired and more. More than once, this led to further accidents, but the ethos was "so be it".

As such, aggregate races were very rare. (I can only think of two - Japan 1994 and France 1992 - that was an odd affair as well, as the race was stopped because it started raining)...

If you were to fly a red flag and run an aggregate race every time, we would have completely bizarre seasons (with bizarre outcomes).
 
Johnny Carwash said:
Until Michael Masi is gone, the integrity of the sport is in the bin.
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I disagree. The integrity of the sport is being tarnished by team managers constantly badgering race directors.

The reason that this is still being discussed is because Hamilton lost the championship, and it's often claimed that Mercedes made their strategic decision based on the fact that "the race should have finished behind the safety car". As such, I started looking at whether the safety car period was particularly short. (The data is really easy to find, as there are good records on Wikipedia!)

The safety car was out for 3 complete racing laps. So is this a short period of time?
  • Across every safety car period in F1 (including long periods due to rain delays, such as Japan 2007), the average number of laps behind the safety car for each period in the race was 3.65 complete laps. The modal number of laps was either 2 or 3 laps - so the most likely outcome was that the race would restart within 2-3 laps - so the best strategy would have been to stop for tyres. Had Hamilton stopped, we wouldn't now be discussing this.
  • Further, 53% of safety car periods run for 3 laps or fewer. Even in Baku, the safety car period to clear up Stroll's massive accident lasted only 3 complete racing laps.
Masi made a mistake in how he applied the rules - but this was based on trying to ensure a racing outcome - rather than finishing the championship behind the safety car. I think that having a bank of race directors would be good, in that then there would be space to give one director a "rest" if they make major errors (in the same way as football referees do).

People are only seeing corruption because they are looking for it.

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The Artist..... said:
Masi made a mistake in how he applied the rules - but this was based on trying to ensure a racing outcome
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His role as race director was to apply the rules. He is not there to modify the rules as he sees fit based on his preferred outcome.

He did not allow a racing outcome for any car placed 3rd or lower due to his decision.

Regardless of how the championship ended, regardless of who became champion, the rights and wrongs of the tactical calls by the teams and the other factors, Masi took it upon himself to play sporting God.

You cannot blame the teams for that.
 
With just five laps to go Hamilton was cruising with a 10+ second lead and no doubt kettles up and down the country were already being boiled. So other than Red Bull (obviously) there could be no complaints had Abu Dhabi finished behind the safety car - as a sporting contest it was over anyway. Done. Dusted. Finito. Until Masi decided to play god that is. Bin him.
 
steveg

The same could be said of the race at Imola. Hamilton was a lap down, with no chance of getting any significant points, but then the accident, red flag and restart changed all that, and he charged through to second.

Would Imola have been appropriate to finish under the safety car?
What about Silverstone? Where Hamilton had a broken wheel, and had the race not been stopped would either have retired, or lost significant track position.

It's inappropriate to look at the position of the cars before the safety car.

Either safety cars happen in F1, and sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose, or you don't have safety cars. A principle should be that the safety car is out for no longer than it is needed, and frankly, as soon as the track is clear, the safety car should be called in.
 
@Artist

Yes Hamilton got lucky with a red flag at Imola, just as Vertsappen got lucky with a red flag in Qatar. But neither race felt contrived just the standard winners and losers as there always is whenever a race is neutralised - as you have already stated. And yes any safety car should be brought in as soon as possible but there is still a standard procedure to do this and at Abu Dhabi the amount of laps remaining after the track was cleared did not allow for that standard procedure to be followed. If there was no time to restart on the next lap after ALL cars are unlapped then you either finish the race behind the safety car - as it would have done at any other time or if you must pander to Netflix for the final race of the season then you restart as quickly as possible with NO cars unlapped. But what you definately don't do is some kind of half baked bodge leaving a totally uneven mess at the front.
 
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Aggregate timing wouldn't really work when safety cars are as common as they are.

Imagine:
Driver A leads driver B by two seconds before red flag. Driver A fluffs the restart, driver B takes the lead with driver C also overtaking driver A. When driver A manages to overtake driver C, B is already ten seconds ahead, with no chance to catch.

Now, the late safety car would actually bring cars back together and driver A is now within the gap needed to win the race.
 
No it would not because how do you penalise or admit the race director was incompetent and messed up the race control. Should the stewards have the power to veto? If the race director messed up are they suspended?
 

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