Massy "succumbs" under pressure from Wolff and Horner

Both Martin Blundell and Damon Hill believe Toto Wolff and Christian Horner put undue pressure on Michael Massi in the final stages of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The leaders of Mercedes and Red Bull Racing used their radio equipment to plead with the race director that his decision would help their drivers Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen perform at key moments in the title race.

In the end, Horner was celebrating, Wolff was angry, and Massy turned the lights green on the final lap, allowing Verstappen to overtake Hamilton and win the race and thus the season championship.

Brundel believes that Massy's decisions were influenced by various team members, who were all listening as he tried to make the right decisions.

Commenting on the controversy in Abu Dhabi, the famous F1 commentator Brundl said: "Those teams are asking for unwinding on the radio, and if you receive so many fleet radios at the same time, they are all asking if we can unwind." I don't need to defend Michael Massie, but we ended 39 grand prix races in 17 months, many of them in new venues, he was exhausted and under pressure, he made some wrong decisions, accelerated the resumption of the race, put the two cars together. I think he was swayed by Christian Horner's radio and he said 'you have to unset these ducted cars'. I think he's trying to do the right thing, but in doing so, he's violating the FIA's own rules. ”

Hill believes F1 general manager Ross Brown's plan to cut off radio transmissions between team manager and Massy will play a role in an event similar to the Yas Marina circuit.

Hill said: "I think these radio calls definitely influenced Marcy's decision, he was ambitious and didn't want to finish the race under the safety car, so he had a lot to deal with and I think he succumbed to the pressure of the two teams in the radio. You can't let people like Toto Wolff and Christian Horner pester him when the tournament director tries to arrange the game, he has a lot to do and he needs backing. ”