Why will that ease tension at Mercedes? Because the extra guy is German?fritticaldi wrote: ↑25 Jan 2022, 20:08Masi will have reinforcements in the name of German Niel Wittich from the DTM series. This solution will help ease the tension of Mercedes and Toto Wolff.
This was pretty --- as well. For the fans it might be great but the rules were not followed here.
If it was just one or two incidents, I’m totally with you. But my feeling is that he screwed up so much over the past seasons, that a certain level of trust is gone. As a competitor you have to trust that when something happens, rules, regulations and protocols are followed like agreed. To me, what is also quite obvious, no active drivers from teams in the stewards. It was a bit of a coincidence that at the races where questionable decisions were made, Liuzzi (former RedBull driver and current Alpha Tauri sim racer) was the driver representative.Big Tea wrote: ↑25 Jan 2022, 23:12Don't know how Merc and Hamilton will take it, but to be It makes more sense to fix something that is broken than to start from component parts, which is similar to what would have to happen in F1 as there seems to be no one prepared.
I think it is quite obvious what was broken, which I see as teams being able to talk to the RD during the race and one person having the ( perceived by them ) power to jump off the railtracks of the rule book in order to achieve what another section of the management want.
If he has an assistant, 'queries' can be addressed to him during the race via this filter and only relevant information passed on, probably in text form with no inflection.
He (Massi, or whoever is in that job) will not have sole responsibility/authority to make 'judgments' outside of the rule book, just a choice of options on a list, and there will probably be other checks imposed from on high to ensure this too.
As I have admitted before, I was one of those calling for him to go, but as there seems to be no one able to do the job it would be stupid to lose him.
Also, someone has been amiss not making sure there was a ready to go, plug in replacement. What if he had been taken long term ill, or even left the job?
There is precedent already - Ferrari regularly used to threaten to leave F1 if something didn't go their way. Indeed, they even got themselves a veto from Bernie back in the day because they threatened to leave.
Hopefully this pressuring from the teams won't happen any more - the teams shouldn't be able to do what Mercedes and Red Bull were doing in the last race. That was bad for the sport's image, even if the broadcasters and the media mob loved the "drama" of it. It was damnably unprofessional.
They would just ask the RD assistant, and he would tell them as Massi did or go and ask Massi and relay the answer.Just_a_fan wrote: ↑26 Jan 2022, 00:05Hopefully this pressuring from the teams won't happen any more - the teams shouldn't be able to do what Mercedes and Red Bull were doing in the last race. That was bad for the sport's image, even if the broadcasters and the media mob loved the "drama" of it. It was damnably unprofessional.
Having said that, it is utterly important that the rules written down and known by everyone are the rules that are followed. Either unlap all cars or unlap none, for example. His choice, yes, but do one or the other. Then teams can decide how to run their strategies. I think that's all Mercedes want - consistency of rule interpretation. Without the pressure from the teams, this should be easier for the RD to achieve.
One thing that will be interesting if the teams can't talk to the RD directly, is what about the very common "Michael, do we have to give the place back?" type stuff? In principle, this should ensure that all teams instruct all of their drivers to give places back. Right up until someone doesn't, of course, and "gets away with it", at which point it'll be a feeding frenzy.
Wolff was equally bullish with his infamous e-mails and diagrams immediately after the Silverstone incident. Many thought what gall he had to make such attempts through personal e-mails. Hamilton too benefited from many "non-calls" so in the end it balanced out. Though I would say what sounded like Toto calling Masi "Mikey" during the last race was trying a bit too hard if not a bit patronizing.Jolle wrote: ↑16 Jan 2022, 12:01Horners reply’s on the many why’s he might be asked in his dealings with the racing director. For instance, why did you write this down. Horner/RedBull had, with succes, a great pressure on Masi last season, with great success. Bullish at times.
We all know how an interview with Wolff would go, but it’s far more interesting to know how the team that benefited, trying to defend Masi and their own pressure on the system.
Both teams tried to get the best for themselves, which is entirely natural. Neither covered themselves in glory at any point during the season in their dealings with the RD, however.ispano6 wrote: ↑26 Jan 2022, 01:47Wolff was equally bullish with his infamous e-mails and diagrams immediately after the Silverstone incident. Many thought what gall he had to make such attempts through personal e-mails. Hamilton too benefited from many "non-calls" so in the end it balanced out. Though I would say what sounded like Toto calling Masi "Mikey" during the last race was trying a bit too hard if not a bit patronizing.Jolle wrote: ↑16 Jan 2022, 12:01Horners reply’s on the many why’s he might be asked in his dealings with the racing director. For instance, why did you write this down. Horner/RedBull had, with succes, a great pressure on Masi last season, with great success. Bullish at times.
We all know how an interview with Wolff would go, but it’s far more interesting to know how the team that benefited, trying to defend Masi and their own pressure on the system.
Teams talking to the RD was always a bad idea. But even without that, he made mistakes on various occasions, some were outright dangerous.Big Tea wrote: ↑25 Jan 2022, 23:12I think it is quite obvious what was broken, which I see as teams being able to talk to the RD during the race and one person having the ( perceived by them ) power to jump off the railtracks of the rule book in order to achieve what another section of the management want.
