World champion Max Verstappen says it is “very unfair” Michael Masi has been removed from the post of race director, and he has been “thrown under the bus”.
Verstappen said it was “unacceptable” to have allowed team bosses to talk directly to Masi during races.
And he said the decision to remove him was “really incredible”.
Masi failed to follow the safety-car rules correctly in two different ways in last year’s final race – on the treatment of lapped cars and the timing of a restart.
He did so under pressure from both the Mercedes and Red Bull teams, with Masi seeming to follow Red Bull’s advice as he sought to comply with a previously made decision to try to prevent races finishing under the safety car.
When the race resumed for one final lap, Lewis Hamilton – who had dominated the race and was on course for an eighth world title – was left exposed on old tyres and Verstappen passed him to become world champion.
Governing body the FIA has since announced a new organisation for race control. Masi was replaced by two individuals who will share the role, a support structure for the race director has been introduced, and teams will no longer be able to talk to them directly.
Masi will be given another role at the FIA.
Verstappen said: “Of course people talk about what was decided in Abu Dhabi but can you imagine a referee in whatever sport has the coach or equivalent screaming in his ear all the time?
“‘Yellow card, red card, no decision, no foul.’ It’s impossible to make a decision.
“That F1 allowed that team members could talk to him while making decisions is very wrong. It needed to be Michael making decisions on his own without people screaming in his ear.
“The people who sacked him allowed that in the first place. For me (that) is unacceptable and now to sack him I find it really incredible.
“I feel very sorry for Michael because he was very capable and a good race director.
“I have nothing against the new race directors. They are also very capable and good but I felt sad for Michael and I sent him a text.”
The Dutchman said Masi had been put in a difficult position when he took over the race director role when FIA F1 director Charlie Whiting died on the eve of the 2019 season.
Race director was one of the roles Whiting performed.
“After Charlie died, it is hard to take over from someone like him, he had so much experience,” Verstappen said.
“And also Charlie had help around him and maybe Michael just needed a little bit more.”
Last week, Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff denied the world champions had withdrawn their appeal into the outcome of the race on the basis Masi would be replaced.
Wolff said: “I don’t know where that comes from. The restructuring within how decisions are being made in F1, sporting decisions, and also technical decisions, was necessary.
“Last year was a great season but it created a lot of polarisation with decisions that were not always easy to understand.”
Wolff denied the race in Abu Dhabi was fixed, as some have claimed.
“It was just circumstances and decisions that were unprecedented and how they came about certainly for us was a shock,” he said.
“Three laps to the end we got a message saying the lapped cars were not allowed to unlap themselves and three minutes later there were two messages that came out of nowhere.
“Now obviously we know what happened in the background unknown to us [at the time] and then the championship was gone. That is unprecedented.
“But also we have to move on from that. With the measures announced, we need to put it aside.
“We are not going to forget it because that is simply not possible. With the steps taken, we can embark with encouragement on the season.”
