Hamilton positive about Abu Dhabi F1 GP report
Mar.21 - Lewis Hamilton says Formula 1 authorities did not apologise as they handed down the full report of the post-Abu Dhabi finale investigation.
The length report said the axed Michael Masi acted in "good faith" but "human error" was part of the explanation for the controversial decisions surrounding the late and decisive safety car period.
"To be honest, I didn't look at it. I might read it after the weekend," said the Mercedes driver.
"But I wasn't expecting an apology - that's not something I focus on. It is what it is and at least it says it was human error, that's a positive step," he added.
"Unfortunately, we cannot turn back the clock and change the past."
New FIA president Muhammed ben Sulayem said Australian Masi was removed as race director to "take the stress of him", with "negotiations" on a new role now taking place.
"We believe that all the duties of the race director cannot be performed by only one person," he said in Bahrain.
"We are talking about 23 races and constant travel - all of this leads to severe fatigue, so we came up with such a solution."
Former driver Christian Danner, however, questions that solution.
"The new dual leadership of Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas is a highly complicated construct," he told Kolner Express newspaper.
"Neither of them have had anything to do with the kind of personalities we have in Formula 1. It's very different summoning a DTM or GT3 driver to your office compared with Verstappen and Hamilton and their bosses.
"Another problem is that if you have two race directors, the directors can soon be saying 'It was my colleague's turn last week and my turn to decide this week'.
"I doubt whether that is the ideal solution," Danner added.
DTM boss Gerhard Berger, meanwhile, wonders whether the German touring car series' former race director Wittich is really up to the job in Formula 1.
"Everyone deserves their chance," he told Bild newspaper. "But the question is valid in so far that Formula 1 is a completely different calibre.
"It's an insane challenge," said the former F1 driver, team boss and co-owner.
"For Niels it's a jump into the deep end, but everyone deserves their chance. It's up to him to do it."
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Taking it well and with dignity unlike potty mouth at Bahrain GP. So just to confirm, the 2021 WDC record should have a * next MV's name with the words 'Human Error' as the footnote.
FIA words not mine.
If you ask me they also made a human error by giving only a 10 sec. penalty to Hamilton for causing a collision at Copse corner.
But that's also done and dusted. Lets look forward to this season, that's much more interesting and great to see Ferrari back on top for once!
Wittich's debut event as F1's race director went decently smoothly & issue-freely.
I'm sure Freitas will also survive whenever he debuts.
Unfortunately what the Abu Dhabi controversy revealed was a weakness in the appeal process which the report appears to be silent on. The parties who rendered the initial decisions that resulted in "human error" should not be the ones to adjudicate the appeal. As we saw they merely looked found a reason to justify their error.
Dual leadership?? Now the FIA is asking for trouble... How confusing will that be for the Stewards? By the way, as far as I know, the FIA does not use the same Stewards for every race?. If so, that is in my opinion where the problem starts.
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