Michael Masi reveals the reason for the new start in Baku

Once again, the Baku track offered us a completely crazy Grand Prix. Overtaking, spectacle, twists and turns, everything was there. However, this race was marked by the two violent accidents of Lance Stroll and Max Verstappen on the long straight of the circuit. It was following the second accident that the red flag was raised.

As there were only six laps left in the race, Max Verstappen reportedly suffered a rear left tire failure. He lost control of his Red Bull and crashed into the wall at very high speed. Race direction immediately reacted and deployed the safety car.

From then on, radio exchanges with the race direction have increased, and Jonathan Wheatley, the sporting director of Red Bull, suggested to Michael Masi (race director) to interrupt the race, in order to allow the drivers to change tires. A few moments later, the red flag was shown, but the race director claims not to have been influenced by this request.

« I actually already had that in mind. As for what we communicate, we do it to everyone and in the same way. Given the number of laps left to go, the cleaning that was underway, and the fact that there was so much debris on the pit straight, at that time, the best option in my opinion was to suspend the race, clean everything up, and then go to the end, he explained.

There was no reason not to do it.

Once Verstappen’s Red Bull and the debris were cleared, the single-seaters returned to the track behind the safety car before starting for two short (to say the least eventful) laps.

In the past, the race could have been stopped since more than 75% of the total distance had been completed. However, with the evolution of the rule, the race was able to continue, and the decision to stop the Grand Prix never crossed Michael Masi’s mind.

« Fortunately, for some years now, we have regulations for the suspension of races. A long time ago, when there was a red flag during a race after a certain distance had been covered, we would go back two laps, etc. With the race suspension rule, there is indeed an option not to resume. But within the time and regulatory framework, we could resume. There was no reason not to. »

Several laps earlier, Lance Stroll was also a victim of a similar accident in the same section of the circuit as Verstappen. However, during this crash, only the safety car was deployed. Masi admitted that he did not bring out the red flag because there was enough time and space on the right side of the track when cleaning up. We were confident that we could fix this in this way.

« As I said, when taking everything into consideration, we were not confident about cleaning the pit straight (after Verstappen’s crash), and that the large amount of debris everywhere could be cleaned in a timely manner. We therefore felt that, in these circumstances, it was in the best interest of the sport to suspend the race and then resume it later. »