Following the presentation of the new Red Bull RB18, Max Verstappen is now ready to hit the track with his number 1 single-seater, the ‘status-symbol’ of the world champion title won in the thrilling and highly contested final of the Abu Dhabi GP 2021. In that circumstance, the Dutchman managed to overtake his rival Lewis Hamilton during the final lap of the race, making the most of the advantage of a pit stop that the English rival did not make. In addition to this, complicating the defense of the British driver of Mercedes was the decision of the Clerk of the Course Michael Masiwhich allowed only the dubbed drivers present between the two challengers for the world championship to relocate to the group.
A choice that sent not only the seven-time world champion into a rage, but also the entire Mercedes team, which immediately presented several appeals to the FIA, all rejected to the sender. Outside the fans of Hamilton or the Silver arrowsmany have equally criticized the moves made by Masi at that juncture, but not the 1978 world champion Mario Andretti. The Italian-American, in addition to having admitted that “Would have done the same” if he had been in the role of the Australian, he also remarked other aspects deemed correct, also underlining a not entirely strenuous defense of the British driver against the Dutch: “You can never predict what will happen during a race – commented Big Foot in an interview with planetf1.com – no one knew Latifi would crash, so you have to be prepared for these eventualities; sometimes you act correctly, other times you wish you had done things differently. But that’s nothing different from what happened before in the sport. I think it was all right, and Verstappen earned what he got. In his last lap maneuver, Lewis left the door open. I think he underestimated how close Max was in his mirrors, hence Lewis can’t complain and everything happened in the correct way, in my opinion, considering the circumstances “.
However, apart from the single case of Yas Marina, Andretti hopes not to review the episodes that occurred in the rest of the season, starting with the publication of the radio teams between Masi himself and the teams: “I think we all saw, during the season, when Michael Masi stood negotiating the penalty with the teamsthat it’s a bit ridiculous honestly – he added – so I think some of these things need to be changed. Everyone knows, no doubt. The race commissioner has the authority to react in certain circumstances. Under Charlie Whiting, it was never going to be an issue, he was doing everything right with common sense and judgment, and not negotiating with the teams. If he saw that there was a penalty coming, there would be a penalty, full stop ”.
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