The very first visit to Jeddah conjured up an extremely controversial and dramatic Grand Prix, as title rivals Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen clashed several times before the Mercedes driver took a pivotal victory to organize a championship showdown in Abu Dhabi.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said Formula 1 missed Masi’s late predecessor Charlie Whiting’s experience at the Saudi Arabia GP after a series of controversial and unusual decisions.
In a bizarre discussion, Masi offered Red Bull the chance to lose his position and to drop Verstappen on a restart from pole behind Hamilton on the grid after overtaking Hamilton off the track.
Horner described the negotiation as “being in the souk” and “unusual”. The two time penalties that Verstappen received for incidents with Hamilton also hurt the Red Bull boss.
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However, Brawn stood up for Masi in his usual post-race column on the F1 official website.
“I would like to congratulate the FIA and Race Director Michael Masi for coping well with this extremely difficult race. I know some people felt that some of the decisions were controversial, but I didn’t, ”he wrote.
“The situation you had with Max and Lewis when you restarted when Michael recommended leaving Max behind Esteban? [Ocon] and Lewis, was handled well as the alternative was reporting him to the stewards, which could have resulted in a time penalty.
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“I think Michael was pragmatic about it. This type of discussion happens several times during a race. If a driver passes someone or defends himself unfairly, the race director instructs the team to correct their position.
“Some people seem to think Michael made a deal. He wasn’t making a deal. It was very simple: you accept the decision of the race director with a known outcome or it is passed on to the commissioners.
“It was a tricky race and a tricky weekend. We had a lot of challenges here and I think everyone – the FIA, Formula 1 and the teams – pulled together to make this event a success, and it was a great success. ”
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