[Niamh.]

Looks like Masi's job might be in danger, similar incident from 2020 and he did the exact opposite........seeming like he just bends the rules to whatever will cause a more dramatic finish (Netflix hhmmm)

But now an incident from last season – and Race Director’s Masi’s response to it – have thrown his controversial actions from this weekend’s race into fresh doubt.

In October 2020 in the Eifel Grand Prix at Germany’s iconic Nurburgring, McLaren’s Lando Norris suffered an engine failure with fire and smoke coming from his car. He pulled to the side of the road.

Masi ordered a Safety Car while Norris’ car was removed from a dangerous position near the track. Then, he allowed all lapped cars to un-lap themselves – a full 10 of them – in a lengthy process. Norris had retired on lap 44, but it wasn’t until lap 50 that the race was restarted.

At the time, Masi was blasted by fans and a number of teams and drivers for the extremely long period of time the Safety Car was deployed for - more than three laps after Norris’ car was cleared.

Many claimed that he the way he used the Safety Car was deliberately aimed at creating a more dramatic finish. It’s a similar criticism to that aimed at the Australian following this week’s chaos.

But Masi defended himself by referring to the same F1 regulations at the heart of the current saga.

He told Motorsport Weekly after the race: “There’s a requirement in the sporting regulations to wave all the lapped cars past.

“From that point, it was position six onwards that were still running [on the lead lap], so between 10 or 11 cars had to un-lap themselves.

“Therefore the safety car period was a bit longer than what we would have normally expected.”

Crucially, he said the requirement was that all lapped cars must be unleashed to return themselves to the lead lap – the opposite of his controversial actions this weekend.

https://www.news.com.au/sport/motors...t=SocialBakers