RacingNiels Wittich has backed Michael Masi over Formula 1’s most disputed title-deciding call, saying the former race director “didn’t do that much wrong” in Abu Dhabi 2021 and arguing the FIA later turned him into a “scapegoat.” In an interview with Formel1.de, Autosport’s sister YouTube channel, Wittich said Masi acted within his authority at Yas Marina when Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen arrived level on points for the season finale.
Wittich, who served as F1 race director from 2022 to 2024, focused on the late safety car that changed the championship fight. Hamilton led Verstappen by more than 11 seconds with six laps left when Williams driver Nicholas Latifi crashed, bringing out the safety car. According to the source material, Mercedes kept Hamilton out to protect track position because of uncertainty over whether the race might be red-flagged or simply finish behind the safety car. Verstappen stopped for new soft tyres and stayed second.
The decisive call came on lap 57 of 58. Masi allowed only the five lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to unlap themselves, then brought the safety car in immediately for a final green-flag lap. Verstappen, on fresh softs, passed Hamilton, who remained on used hard tyres, and took his first world title.
Wittich said in the Formel1.de interview that Masi’s handling of that sequence sat inside the race director’s powers at the time. “From my point of view, Michael didn’t do that much wrong,” Wittich, former F1 race director, said in the interview with Formel1.de. “The regulations didn’t strictly define everything. What he did was within his authority. He had a certain level of discretion in how to deploy the safety car.”
That matters because the written rule pointed another way. The article cites Article 48.12, which said that once the last lapped car had passed the leader, the safety car should return to the pits at the end of the following lap. According to the article, a literal reading of that would have left no racing lap to the finish and handed the championship to Hamilton. Wittich still said in the same Formel1.de interview that Masi’s choice not to wait that extra lap “was within his authority under the regulations at the time.”
He also said Masi was applying a principle already discussed across the sport. “Teams, FIA, and Formula 1 had all agreed, over many meetings, that races should, if possible, finish under green flag conditions. Nobody wanted a race ending behind the safety car,” Wittich, former F1 race director, said in the Formel1.de interview. On the idea of a red flag, he added in the same interview: “You could have red-flagged the race, but that requires specific conditions like danger to personnel or a blocked track. That wasn’t the case. So red flag wasn’t really an option.”
Wittich’s strongest criticism was saved for the FIA response after the race. “After the investigation following Abu Dhabi, the conclusion seemed to be that Michael had to go, essentially finding a scapegoat,” Wittich, former F1 race director, said in the Formel1.de interview. He then pointed to what he saw as a failure to stand behind its officials. “What was really disappointing, for me and many colleagues, was the lack of support from the FIA for Michael,” Wittich, former F1 race director, said in the Formel1.de interview. He added that the absence of backing “is one of the reasons I’m no longer a race director in Formula 1.”