Horner admits Red Bull pressured race director Masi in the 2021 Abu Dhabi finale
Almost five years after the controversial 2021 title decider, former Red Bull boss Christian Horner admits he leaned on race director Michael Masi over the radio – and points the finger at Toto Wolff.
Archive image · Photo: UK in Japan- FCO / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (cropped and resized)
Christian Horner has publicly admitted for the first time that he deliberately put pressure on then race director Michael Masi at the 2021 season finale in Abu Dhabi. In his new book 'Drive', the former Red Bull team principal writes, according to Crash.net and GPFans: "I decided to apply some more pressure on race control." After Nicholas Latifi's crash, race control had initially said the lapped cars between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton would not be allowed to unlap.
Horner then radioed Masi: "Come on, Michael, we need to get this race going; why aren't we getting these lapped cars out the way?" Shortly afterwards the five cars between the two title rivals were allowed through after all, Verstappen passed Hamilton on the final lap and won his first world title. On the High Performance Podcast, Horner defended his actions: "It wasn't our fault."
At the same time, Horner accuses Mercedes of starting the practice of contacting the race director directly. It only became clear to him at Barcelona that year that Toto Wolff was speaking directly to Masi – "You're putting pressure on the referee here," he says he thought at the time. According to Motorsport-Total, Horner also concedes that Hamilton had the faster car that day and praises his sportsmanship after the race.