In a news item about Masi's removal on the BBC today they said it was because of his "failure to correctly implement the rules"
Yes, Masi’s removal is a clear admission that the safety car rules and procedures were violated and in effect, an admission that Hamilton was the true winner of the race and WDC. All who are familiar with the FIA Sporting Regs. or have at least read article 48.12 know this. Masi violated the safety car rules on two counts. The first was illicitly selecting out and allowing only the lapped cars between Lewis and Max to unlap themselves. The second, and most significant violation re. the finishing order, was bringing the safety car in one lap too early in order to allow the bogus, contrived “shootout” lap to take place. Article 48.12 states:
Unless the clerk of the course considers the presence of the safety car is still necessary, once the last lapped car has passed the leader the safety car will return to the pits at the end of the following lap.
The procedure as stated here is unambiguous—it’s very clearly written and can’t plausibly be interpreted in any other manner. The last of the 5 lapped cars designated by Masi to unlap themselves passed Lewis and the safety car on lap 57. Thus, by the regs, the safety car should have come in not at the end of that lap (lap 57) but at the “
end of the following lap,” i.e., lap 58, which of course was the end of the race since this was a 58 lap race. That the running order behind the safety car when deployed on the final lap was to be the final race order is confirmed by article 48.15 which states:
If the safety car is still deployed at the beginning of the last lap, or is deployed during the last lap, it will enter the pit lane at the end of the lap and the cars will take the end-of-race signal as normal without overtaking.
It’s thus unequivocal that Lewis actually won that race and the WDC (and deservedly so, since he dominated the race and had it in the bag at the time of Latifi’s crash) and that these victories were illicitly stolen from him. If, even after admitting this wrong, the FIA merely takes various measures without also correcting this wrong by changing the results and restoring the race win and WDC to the true winner (Hamilton), then any actions they take will be hollow and unjust beyond words. However, as with others who have posted here, I have no faith in the FIA to do what’s decent and just.
