Mohammed Ben Sulayem, fresh president of the FIA, has chosen Peter Bayer as head of the single-seater area. It will be up to the Secretary General of Sport of the International Federation to follow the open wheel competitions and, in particular, Formula 1.
In short, Ben Sulayem instructs the Austrian to become the interface of Stefano Domenicali, president and CEO of F1, in the paddock. The FIA appoints a prestigious figure to take care of the championship which this year launches a technical revolution to bring the world of GPs into a new era.
The fact that the name of Peter Bayer, instead of Michael Masi, F1 race director, and Nikolas Tombazis, technical manager, appeared in the new FIA organization chart under the single-seater entry.
Those who have limited themselves to commenting on the changes from the graph published by the International Federation have drawn wrong conclusions, very wrong because both Michael Masi and Nikolas Tombazis are operational in their posts and are planning the 2022 season that is about to start.
The feeling we had is that the legislative body has no intention of carrying out a removal, but intends to “protect” the figures most exposed to the media and therefore involved in heated controversies, also to avoid the admission of mistakes. Therefore the exact opposite of what is being said.
For a few days the English press has been pulling out some advances according to which Mercedes urgently awaits answers: according to the British, the presence of Lewis Hamilton at the start of the season would be conditioned by the results of the investigation that the FIA has launched (still under the president by Jean Todt) after the disputed Abu Dhabi GP.
It is evident that Lewis’s silence is part of a strategy that is being ridden by Brackley, but it is equally certain that the hepta-champion will be regularly in his place on the W13 silver arrow, otherwise the Star would find himself with a huge problem to begin with. the new cycle of F1 without the most representative driver, while counting on the arrival of George Russell.
And in all this, in the middle of the story, there was the change of the FIA presidency with Jean Todt who closed his mandate to give way to Mohammed Ben Sulayem. The British would not have voted Graham Stokker, their compatriot candidate, to support the Arab manager.
The Daily Mail, in fact, claims that tomorrow there will be a meeting between Ben Sulayem and Toto Wolff to discuss Masi’s position. It is clear that there is a strong attempt to pressure the FIA to decide the jubilation of the Australian race director, but it seems more a media attempt than an actual strategy.
When Mercedes withdrew from appealing the Abu Dhabi decisions that led Max Verstappen to the world title, there was no requirement in exchange for eliminating Masi and Tombazis (guilty of following Red Bull’s guidelines on the flexibility of the rear wing of the W12 which led Hamilton to be penalized in Brazil for the non-compliance of the distance between the profiles).
According to our information, the Stuttgart company could decide, having accepted the sporting verdict, to ask the FIA to be allowed to go to a civil court, to bring a lawsuit for damages if any guilt emerges from the federal investigation. That seems to be the real sore point of the matter …
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