MICHAEL MASI – OPERATING IN ISOLATION

Michael Masi – Operating in Isolation

Formula 1 race director Michael Masi is the latest subject to be grilled by Foges in his regular Up Front interview series.

Masi discusses the effect COVID-19 has had on Formula 1 events and the way they will be run, how he is involved in the decision making, his career ascendency and a reflection of his first year in Formula 1’s hot seat.

The following is a sample of the interview featured in Auto Action #1787.

What – and how much – is happening to get F1 going again?

There’s a huge amount going on, Mark. I think a number of us within the industry can say it’s probably the busiest time that we’ve ever had. I’m fortunate enough that, by circumstance, I’m here at home in Australia, but spending most nights in video conferences during the European day. Then I spend the day here catching up on all the work that mounts up. So there’s a lot going on, particularly with the return to racing being the huge focus at the moment, with the FIA and F1 working together on getting the F1 championship back up and running and aiming for the first weekend in July in Austria.

Speaking of challenges, you were obviously right in the middle of all the discussions that led to the cancellation of the Australian Grand Prix. You were front and centre when the announcement was made, but you said nothing.

That’s very true.

Why didn’t you at least present the FIA’s point of view?

From a joint F1 and FIA perspective, it had been a very, very long night and what Chase (Carey) delivered from a Formula 1 view was effectively that of the FIA as well. I was there in case there were any specific sporting or FIA related queries, but there weren’t, so if I had spoken, all I would have done was repeat what had already been said by Chase and Paul Little and Andrew Westacott from the Australian Grand Prix Corporation. We’d all worked closely from when we all found out the night before (about a McLaren team member testing positive). Chase had only arrived from Vietnam that morning, but there was a number of us that literally had a sleepless night.

What brought the whole thing underdone? Did they panic?

From my end, if you look at it in perspective, at the time in Australia the level of what COVID-19 was hadn’t really come out. Looking back now on the way it rolled out, effectively the cancellation of the AGP was the first major sporting event to be called off and the catalyst for what happened over the next seven days. It led the world and 10 days later here, we were all pretty much in lockdown.

Read the rest of the interview in the Auto Action Issue 1787, available right now.

Also make sure you follow us on social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or our weekly email newsletter for all the latest updates between issues.