Formula 1’s governing body has finally made its report public over the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix fiasco, saying that a ‘human error’ was responsible for denying Sir Lewis Hamilton his record eighth World Championship. The report has not named former race director Michael Masi as the person making that ‘human error.’ It also has not addressed the point if Masi broke the rule in exchange of some personal benefits.
Masi has since been sacked as the race director and the FIA has restructured a new management team to oversee future races.
The report has been made public on the eve of the Bahrain Grand Prix, which will be the first race of the new season starting tomorrow.
The report conclusively proves that Mercedes driver, Sir Lewis Hamilton, was robbed of his record eighth title. This also establishes that Max Verstappen was wrongly crowned as the world champion for the first time.
According to the report, Race Director Masi had ‘called the safety car back into the pit lane without it having completed an additional lap as required by the Formula 1 sporting regulations.’
Hamilton, who lost a possible eighth world title in Abu Dhabi following Masi’s errors, had said on Friday that it was ‘important that, as a sport, we’re transparent.’ The British drive had said that he was “looking forward to seeing [the report] come out and for people to know that this sport is transparent and we are learning from what’s happened in the past and will make improvements moving forward.’
In Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Sir Lewis led the race for 57 out of 58 laps until the race director, Michael Masi, controversially done away with the FIA rules and allowed Max Verstappen to win his first World Championship title. Many believe that the race was fixed to stop Hamilton from being the all-time great. Had Sir Lewis won the Abu Dhabi race, he would become the only race driver to win a record eight world championship titles.
Masi’s controversial decision had prompted many Hollywood celebrities to allege that Sir Lewis was targeted because of his colour. Ecclestone, a White British national, had controversially told Sky News that he did not want Sir Lewis to go past Schumacher.