Formula 1 officials did not apologize when they handed down the entire results of the post-Abu Dhabi finale probe according to Lewis Hamilton.
The sacked Racer Director Michael Masi behaved in “good faith,” according to the lengthy investigation, but “human error” was a factor in the contentious decisions surrounding the late and decisive safety car time.
“To be honest, I didn’t look at it. I might read it after the weekend,” said the seven-time world champion.
“But I wasn’t expecting an apology that’s not something I focus on. It is what it is and at least it says it was human error, that’s a positive step,” he added.
“Unfortunately, we cannot turn back the clock and change the past.”
Australian Masi was replaced as race director to “take the weight off him,” according to new FIA president Muhammed bin Sulayem, who added that “negotiations” on a new job are currently underway.
“We believe that all the duties of the race director cannot be performed by only one person,” ben Sulayem said in Bahrain.
“We are talking about 23 races and constant travel… all of this leads to severe fatigue, so we came up with such a solution.”
Former driver Christian Danner, on the other hand, has reservations about such an idea.
“The new dual leadership of Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas is a highly complicated construct,” Danner told Kolner Express newspaper.
“Neither of them have had anything to do with the kind of personalities we have in Formula 1.”
“It’s very different summoning a DTM or GT3 driver to your office compared with Verstappen and Hamilton and their bosses.”
“Another problem is that if you have two race directors, the directors can soon be saying ‘It was my colleague’s turn last week and my turn to decide this week’.”
“I doubt whether that is the ideal solution,” Danner added.
Meanwhile, DTM head Gerhard Berger questions if Wittich, the former race director of the German touring car series, is truly up to the task in Formula 1.
“Everyone deserves their chance… but the question is valid in so far that Formula 1 is a completely different calibre,” Berger told Bild newspaper.
“It’s an insane challenge,” said the former F1 driver, team boss and co-owner.
“For Niels it’s a jump into the deep end, but everyone deserves their chance. It’s up to him to do it.”
