The chorus made up of protagonists, professionals and enthusiasts and unanimous: the challenge for the conquest of the 2021 world title between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton it must be fought and decided exclusively on the track and the display of the checkered flag. The last races of this season have been transformed into endless weekends due to the controversy and the decisions that the Race Commissioners were required to make. The wait for the verdicts was exhausting, probably because once a decision was made, the Stewards took all the time necessary to draft a document that left no footing for the teams to appeal against the verdict issued by the Race Direction. A clear example of this necessary safety measure taken by the Commissioners are the documents that accompanied the sentences against Valterri Bottas and Max Verstappen at the Qatar Grand Prix, where the two drivers lost positions on the starting grid for a comparable infraction (single yellow flag for Bottas, double for Verstappen) which saw Bottas’ document limited to a small paragraph of explanation against the two pages written in the document dedicated to the penalty inflicted on the World Cup leader.
Faced with such a close duel and with tracks that in too many cases leave the riders free to interpret escape routes that should represent a real barrier and not an extension of the circuit, the role of the Clerk of the Course Michael Masi and of the Commissioners is both thankless and crucial. “A referee will never be popular – explained Michael Masi joined by the English newspaper racefans.net – we must not forget that it has been a very long time since there has been a duel of this magnitude between two drivers and two fantastic teams in F1 “. The heir of Charlie Whiting reiterated that each controversial episode is unique in its kind in the dynamic and that the role of the Commissioners is precisely to recognize and evaluate the differences of each situation at the limit or beyond the regulation: “The differences are often minimal, but the Commissioners are there to recognize and evaluate them.”
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