Reject of the Race - Azerbaijan

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Pick your Reject of the Race!

Poll ended at 11 Jun 2021, 08:13

Mercedes drivers: Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas
13
39%
Michael Masi
13
39%
Pirelli
7
21%
 
Total votes: 33

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mario
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Re: Reject of the Race - Azerbaijan

Post by mario »

Row Man Gross-Gene wrote:
mario wrote:However, what really disgusts me is the way that Masi reacted to McLaren when they radioed him to complain that Tsunoda was ignoring the yellow flags and not slowing down as he passed Max's car. Masi's response was along the lines of "well, I don't think any of the drivers are slowing down enough, but I can't be bothered to investigate them and so can't be arsed to deal with Tsunoda" - which is disgraceful.


If that's what Masi truly meant, I would agree, but I heard it differently. The way I heard it is that so many drivers (if not all of them) failed to follow the rules of the double-waved yellow, that were Masi to enforce the rule uniformly, the resulting penalties would have resulted in no net changes to the running order. Given the eventual response from McLaren, it sure seems like that must not be an uncommon occurrence. The rules should be followed, but since it seems that pretty much all of the drivers reacted to the double-waved yellows as if they were single-waved yellows, he let it go. I don't necessarily agree with that course of action, but I can understand it.

As far as the length of time to deploy the safety car, I'd need someone to really take me through the thought process there to explain why it should be considered a dereliction of duty rather than just an instance of indecision within acceptable limits.

For pure rejectfulness, the call to Latifi was pretty hilarious, I'm surprised there is no language protocol for "go through the pit lane but don't box". ;)

To me, it feels like a dereliction of duty on Masi's part that he is allowing the situation to deteriorate to the point where drivers feel they can act with relative impunity to double or single waived yellows.

As shown by the video clip that Miguel98 links to, we had Raikkonen completely ignoring the yellow flags and going flat out through that area - asides from the issue of what might have happened if he went through that debris field and got a puncture, the closing speed with Alonso raised a few concerns given that it looks like Alonso did slow down, whereas Kimi wasn't.

To me, it feels as if the drivers and teams believed that Masi would basically ignore those transgressions rather easily, and that Masi's reply basically acted as acknowledgement that is the case.

With regards to the safety car, there have been those pointing out that Masi pretty much waited for the entire field to pass Verstappen's crashed car before he deployed the safety car - even though Mazepin was the better part of a minute behind Schumacher, who himself had been more than 46s off the lead when Verstappen crashed.

Masi hasn't explained why, given that he did react more quickly to Stroll's crash by deploying the safety car, he waited longer for Verstappen's crash - especially when drivers were demanding to know over the radio why he hadn't deployed the safety car yet.
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Fetzie
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Re: Reject of the Race - Azerbaijan

Post by Fetzie »

IceG wrote:
Fetzie wrote:Why did Bono not have this information flashing in red on his computer screen?


He may well have done but is there not a rule against coaching a driver on the way to the start line?

On the way to the grid, yes. But after the start?

Also, isn't there an exception for safety-relevant information? I'd have thought that "your brake balance is 90% over the front-axle" would come under that given how it guarantees locking the front wheels on the inside of the first corner, sending the car straight through the traffic.
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Row Man Gross-Gene
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Re: Reject of the Race - Azerbaijan

Post by Row Man Gross-Gene »

Thanks mario, I hadn’t noticed some of the stuff you mentioned. If someone as experienced as Kimi didn’t slow down, then clearly the drivers are feeling pretty lax about the rules and their enforcement and that’s on the people in charge. I’m still not calling for his sacking as I feel like it would be more effective to compel him to be more strict than it would be to train up a new person (assuming he does actually care about the safety of everyone involved).
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Rob Dylan
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Re: Reject of the Race - Azerbaijan

Post by Rob Dylan »

Poll at the top of this thread

Ok this is going to be a fascinating one. There are so many candidates, but I'm making us focus on the three main ones that got people talking the most and had the most nominations. I'm sure any of these three deserve it, so I am very interested to see who wins.

The poll lasts for 48 hours, so get your vote in before Friday morning European time :dance:
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Ducktanian
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Re: Reject of the Race - Azerbaijan

Post by Ducktanian »

Michael Masi / Race Stewarding

This race was an absolute farce from a stewarding perspective, and raises serious concerns over Masi's competence as a race director.

Between the safety car delays, the vague and somewhat lax understanding of the double waved yellow rules, giving Latifi the penalty instead of the team, ignoring Mazepins incident entirely, and the nonsense over the red flag and the green & white checker finish. Not even to mention the shambles that was qualifying with everyone bunching up to get a tow.

Oh yeah and Bottas sucked too I guess.
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mario
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Re: Reject of the Race - Azerbaijan

Post by mario »

Row Man Gross-Gene wrote:Thanks mario, I hadn’t noticed some of the stuff you mentioned. If someone as experienced as Kimi didn’t slow down, then clearly the drivers are feeling pretty lax about the rules and their enforcement and that’s on the people in charge. I’m still not calling for his sacking as I feel like it would be more effective to compel him to be more strict than it would be to train up a new person (assuming he does actually care about the safety of everyone involved).

With regards to timing before the safety car was deployed, in the case of Stroll, it took 43 seconds before Race Control finally deployed the safety car. In the case of Max Verstappen, it took 1 minute and 28 seconds for Race Control to deploy the safety car, over twice as long - and there seems to be no explanation at all why it took that much longer for Masi to deploy the safety car in the case of Verstappen, especially with Stroll's crash earlier in the race setting a similar precedent.

On the topic of how much the drivers were slowing down, whilst it seems most did go through at high speed, some were definitely slowing down quite noticeably. Palmer talks through the telemetry data for some of the cars, and he notes that Norris does make a noticeable effort to slow down - whereas Tsunoda and Gasly were applying full throttle down the entire straight. https://streamable.com/piuee5

Over on The Race, they also point out that Mick Schumacher slowed considerably for Verstappen's crash - similarly, Norris, Bottas and Schumacher were also recorded as slowing down significantly during Stroll's crash. https://the-race.com/formula-1/joke-saf ... from-baku/

It suggests that Masi is lying when he claimed that "every driver" was ignoring the requirement to slow down, because it is clear that there were drivers who did make an effort to slow down quite noticeably, whereas others did not even try to slow down. As Palmer points out - if a driver did this in a practice or qualifying session, they'd have been penalised, and if they were on their own when they did this, they'd be given a penalty.

It's not just this race either - we had Masi restarting qualifying in Turkey last year with a crane still in the run off areas, we had the near miss in Imola last year with marshals on track whilst cars were being told to unlap themselves and the near miss with marshals in the 2019 Monaco GP. It feels like Baku was not just a momentary issue, but part of a systematic pattern of behaviour and a sign that it is an ingrained habit of Masi.

On the point of being more strict with the rules - he should be, but I honestly get the feeling that he rejects all criticism or feedback and does not want to change how he runs the sport. Added to that, one of the major concerns is that Masi also has a major role in training the FIA's staff in stewarding and marshalling responsibilities - which makes me worried that attitude is going to end up being spread into all forms of motorsport organised by the FIA, or at least most of the single seater series.
Martin Brundle, on watching a replay of Grosjean spinning:
"The problem with Grosjean is that he want to take a look back at the corner he's just exited"
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Londoner
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Re: Reject of the Race - Azerbaijan

Post by Londoner »

Quite like the race, ROTR voting for Baku proved very controversial! Find out where the award's gone this time around!
Fetzie on Ferrari wrote:How does a driver hurtling around a race track while they're sous-viding in their overalls have a better understanding of the race than a team of strategy engineers in an air-conditioned room?l
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