Michael Masi has disagreed with Lewis Hamilton’s assessment of the rules, saying that the FIA is always objective with their work.
Hamilton’s reaction to the stewards not handing Max Verstappen a penalty for what he did in Brazil was one of disappointment. He hinted that no one knew what the rules were anymore, and warned of drivers taking advantage of the FIA’s ignorance.
During the driver briefing in Qatar, the seven-time world champion commented, “Every driver, I think, except for Max, was asking for clarity, but it wasn’t very clear.
“It’s still not clear what the limits of that track are. It’s clearly not the white line anymore when overtaking, so we just go for it.”
Masi disagreed with Hamilton’s assessment of the rules, and insisted that everything was clear and objective.
“I think it’s been made clear to them what is expected,” Masi told RacingNews365.com after the Qatar GP.
“I think some of them agree, some of them disagree. That’s always with each and every one of them, they have agreed and disagreed all the way through.
“We’ve given them some overall guidance, but also been very clear on the fact that each and every case will be judged on its merits.”
Trust the process
When asked if the FIA were going a little easy on incidents like the one which took place in Brazil, Masi refuted, saying that each incident is taken up with the same process and the same set of rules.
“We’re not more relaxed. We’re looking at each and every incident on its merits as we have done with each and every one,” he insisted.
“There is a panel of independent stewards, contrary to what many people think, I’m not the one sitting there as judge and jury.
“We have a look, we have a panel of stewards that review each and every incident, and then, as we saw last weekend, they determine if it’s worthy of an investigation.
“If they do, they get investigated and then determine if there’s a breach or not. You need to look at the whole situation, the weather, the run-off, etc., etc.,” he concluded.
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