In the radio messages, Red Bull sporting director Jonathan Wheatley is heard advising Masi on how to deal with lapped cars that are on track between the leaders as he attempts to organise a restart before the laps run out.
At the time, Red Bull's Max Verstappen was on new tyres behind Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton on old rubber, which meant that if the race was resumed Verstappen would have a huge advantage and would likely win the race and championship.
Wheatley says: "Those lapped cars; you don't need to let them go right the way around and catch up with the back of the pack. You only need to let them go, and then we've got a motor race on our hands."
Masi replies: "Understood."
After the race, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff gets on the radio to tell Masi that what he has done is "not right".
Masi replies: "Toto, it's called a motor race, OK?"
this isnāt new info but I find it very odd that no one picked up on it when it was released.
Agreed... I freely confess I didn't know Masi went along with Wheatley's recommendation to restart the race incorrectly. I had always figured Masi was acting of his own accord.this isnāt new info but I find it very odd that no one picked up on it when it was released.
Biggest difference so far is what type of suspension everyone is using. None of the revealed cars will be anything like the cars that will line up in Bahrain. It's impossible to say who will sit where. Mercedes always sandbags at testing, so they'll look off the pace, but probably won't be. We won't know anything till Q3.Interesting to see the different design directions some of the teams have taken thus far. Curious about who has nailed it and who will be well off the pace....
About a month to go til we are racing again...
Was missed in terms of impact. Masi's actions correlate directly to Wheatley's input from RedBull then Masi snipes at Toto at Mercedes later on the radio. It just looks really bad in terms of optics.this isnāt new info but I find it very odd that no one picked up on it when it was released.