After the ignominy and anger caused by the controversial conclusion to last season’s finale in Abu Dhabi, acting to rebuild trust in the FIA as Formula One’s governing body should have been paramount. Yet so far this week the organisation has instead delivered little more than disbelief and disappointment. Where clarity and decisive action were required, insiders paint a picture more akin to a drunk lurching toward an unknown destination, babbling meaningless entreaties.
Dealing with the fallout from the interventions in Abu Dhabi by race director Michael Masi that ultimately ensured Max Verstappen took the title by overtaking Lewis Hamilton on the final lap has been the single most important task facing the FIA. It is also the biggest test facing the newly appointed FIA president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
On Monday an update on its two-month investigation presented to the teams and F1 was described as inconclusive and sorely lacking in detail. Ben Sulayem was swiftly wheeled out to make his case. “The integrity of the FIA will always be intact. I am elected to do that, but also to have a fair motorsport: that’s my duty,” he said. “We can only go forward. This is important for the FIA, for the integrity of the FIA and for the sport.”
If integrity is the aim, the FIA must publish its report findings in full and publicly. If there were failings so great that structural changes are necessary – which they surely are – then the FIA must stand up and own those failings as an organisation.
If the FIA believes the system worked adequately according to the regulations the world body should have the courage of its convictions and show the marking of its own homework. Angry fans deserve at least transparency and honesty, anything else and regaining their trust that the sport is run fairly will be all but impossible.
Senior figures within F1, however, believe the report’s findings will not be made public. Instead the FIA will present only the organisational changes expected to be announced later this week: that the structure of race direction will change, the way of officiating will change, there will be the employment of more people and technology to support decisions, and that they will be insulated from pressure being applied to them during a race.
Having asked the FIA whether the report would be published and the reason why not if that was the case, it declined to reply. Sharing information, it seems, has no part to play in this particular pursuit of integrity.
It is not a good look for F1 or the FIA and if the faith of fans in the governance of F1 has been severely shaken, the handling of events since has not been widely admired within the sport either.
After Monday the reaction from some figures in the paddock was scathing. The investigation has been ongoing for over two months and presenting the F1 Commission with what little they had was described by senior sources as “crazy”, “mad” and reflective of how the FIA is still floundering to deal with last season’s finale in Abu Dhabi.
“They may well say in the next few days: ‘This is what we are going to do, here are our findings’ but I wouldn’t put money on it,” one source said. “It sounds to me like they are all at sea.” Another said: “They have had two months and done nothing to reassure people, media, broadcasters, the teams. To turn up to a meeting like that and be very light on the detail was mad.”
For all the protestations that the new structure is just being finalised, this too does not seem guaranteed. Another senior source related how in only the past week several different potential different scenarios were all still emerging from the FIA. “They don’t know what they are doing, people in the same organisation are saying different things, it’s just a mess,” they commented.
At the heart of this mess still resides Masi. He was present at Monday’s meeting – extraordinary enough given his actions were expected to be a major topic of discussion – and was described by multiple observers as appearing to be shattered, to have been through the wringer. A far cry from the engaging and personable man that was liked and respected.
He too has been let down. If the FIA believes he was culpable it should have done the decent thing and removed him, swiftly. Better still backed him by taking on responsibility for what happened as an organisation. Taking the heat from him in what has become for many personal and acrimonious. To leave him twisting in the wind, “to let the birds pick at him was unforgivable”, noted one observer.
Masi may last the week, he may not, with the World Endurance Championship race director Eduardo Freitas touted as a successor. Certainly the sport appears committed to making changes in pursuit of what is a widely held belief among most teams – that rules cannot be changed according to which part of the race it is, that they are followed and are clear.
If that is the conclusion and the purpose of the changes, why not make the rationale that led to them open to all? Obfuscation can only intensify the sense of unease at how F1 is run and that the FIA has something to hide. Trust, once lost, is hard to regain and the FIA has the chance now to be both bold and brutally honest. If it does so, the FIA might just draw a line under Abu Dhabi.
