Bernie: Marcy was crushed in the 2021 season

Bernie Ecclestone claimed Michael Massey was "overwhelmed" last season and questioned whether the tournament director should take on the role.

Massi's controversial decision in Abu Dhabi to let a part of the snare overtake the safety car and then restart the race with one lap remaining was strongly criticized by some F1 people. Because Verstappen had already finished the pit stop under the safety car and replaced it with a new soft tyre, this gave the Red Bull driver a clear tyre advantage, he overtook Hamilton at Turn 5 before crossing the finish line first to claim his first world title.

However, there were also other decisions from track control and race managers in other races that caught the attention, for example, when the Red Bull driver defended the lead at Interlaggs, causing both cars to veer off the track, but the result was that the incident "did not need to be investigated". Massy was also criticised by Red Bull, with Hamilton being fined "only" 10 seconds after Silverstone collided with Verstappen at high speed. Given these factors, the former F1 boss thinks the Australian may be a bit overwhelmed at times, but he feels Massy made the right decision in Abu Dhabi.

Ecclestone told the media: "In many cases, he has been overwhelmed by his job all season, maybe it shouldn't have been at all, but resuming the game was the right decision. ”

In this farce in Abu Dhabi, Massi has been the recipient of radio messages from the Mercedes and Red Bull camps, especially Toto Wolff, who was furious after the final lap of the race began.

Ecclestone had previously said Mercedes' decision to appeal the decision was "nonsense."

He said at the time: "It's complete nonsense about being robbed. If you think about it, on the first lap of that race, he (Hamilton) left the track and was back on the track, while Verstappen stayed on the track and did absolutely nothing wrong. Lewis wasn't punished for that at all, so he shouldn't complain too much. These things happen a lot in sports and we shouldn't blame the event director, who did the right thing. ”