FIA concludes Masi made a 'human error' at F1 Abu Dhabi GP

Motorsport’s governing body FIA concluded on Saturday that ex-Formula One race director Michael Masi made a “human error” but acted in good faith at the controversial season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix last year.

Masi was replaced as race director last month after the wild Abu Dhabi ending. Red Bull driver Max Verstappen won his first world title after overtaking Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton on the last lap following a controversial restart procedure.

Hamilton led comfortably until a crash by Nicholas Latifi brought out the safety car with five laps remaining. Verstappen stopped under yellow flags for quicker tyres, and Masi flipped his decision and let the five drivers separating Verstappen from Hamilton pass the safety car under yellow. But not all eight, which would have taken longer.

“The process of identifying lapped cars has up until now been a manual one and human error lead to the fact that not all cars were allowed to un-lap themselves,” the FIA said as it published its final conclusions on Saturday. “Due to the fact that manual interventions generally carry a higher risk of human error, software has been developed that will, from now on, automate the communication of the list of cars that must un-lap themselves.”

Masi also called the safety car back too early.

“The race director called the safety car back into the pit lane without it having completed an additional lap,” the FIA said.

Verstappen restarted second behind Hamilton and, on quicker new tyres, zoomed past Hamilton in the fifth turn. Mercedes lost both its protests over how the race ended.

“The ROC will act as a supporting resource for the race direction team with data comparable to that of more than ten simultaneous football matches, including over 140 video and audio sources,” the FIA said.