After a month of inexplicable inaction, the FiA – Formula One’s governing body – has officially met with Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, to kick off their long-delayed inquiry into last month’s Formula 1 season-ending 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix where race director Michael Masi went rogue with the F1 rulebook and his actions directly affected seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton’s chances at claiming a record eighth F1 title after he had dominated the majority of the race.
New FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem held talks with Wolff yesterday regarding the race fiasco. The meeting is the first in the FiA’s similarly inexplicable decision-by-committee inquiry process which will incorporate a series of meetings between the FiA and other F1 team principals and drivers rather than the FiA making an independent authoritative decision on the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The actions of Masi during the race, combined with the lack of immediate action by the FiA in the aftermath of the race as well as the month-long inaction subsequent to the race has, predictably, led Hamilton, Wolff and Mercedes to question the sport’s entire competitive, equitable processes in the race itself as well as the 2022 season and future seasons.
Hamilton has yet to make an official statement on the matter and has been uncharacteristically mum – publicly – presumably while awaiting official statements from the FiA on the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Mercedes – which supplies engines to nearly half the F1 field – has also remained mum while they also presumably await the FIA’s decision regarding the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Continuing their modus operandi of a sluggish pace of action and lack of transparency on 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix issues, the FIA has – so far – failed to issue an official statement regarding the results of Ben Sulayem’s meeting with Wolff.
The first of two 2022 F1 pre-season tests is currently scheduled for February 23-25, 2022, while the first race of the 2022 F1 season is the Bahrain Grand Prix, currently scheduled for March 20, 2022.