Masi "happy" with first year as F1 race director

Formula 1 race director Michael Masi feels he can be “happy” with the job he has done throughout the 2019 season in his first year in the role.

Masi stepped into the role at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix following the sudden passing of former race director Charlie Whiting, who died at the age of 66 on the eve of the Melbourne weekend.

Having been asked to succeed Whiting, Masi and the team around him filled a number of positions Whiting previously looked after, with the Australian impressing enough to be handed the role on a full-time basis until the end of the 2019 campaign.

Reflecting on his first year in the role, Masi said: “I have enjoyed it.

“It will probably be once I’m back in Sydney visiting family over the Christmas/New Year break that I will actually have a bit of time to reflect because I haven’t had the opportunity.

“It’s been go-go-go for various reasons. I’m happy with the job that I’ve done because for me I’ve done the best that I could do and I’ve learnt a huge amount from event to event.

“We all understand and agree that it’s a highly complex industry that we are in but having said that, it’s an industry that I love and enjoy and I couldn’t be more thankful for the support everyone has given me.

“There is always going to be good and bad and you are only as good as the last decision you make in any role.”

Masi said the Australian Grand Prix was “by far” his “toughest” event to manage after the untimely death of Whiting.

“What happened in Melbourne was a hugely sad, unfortunate set of circumstances on a number of levels,” he explained.

“I’ve been asked of late what my toughest event of the year was and by far it was Melbourne.

“But overall, I couldn’t have got through this year without the team of people I have immediately around me at the FIA and the support I received there, our partners at F1 group and how everyone chased down to all the operational guys, they have all supported and assisted me.

“Importantly, there are 20 drivers driving cars and 10 teams, that all of them have embraced, supported and assisted me and without everyone I couldn’t have got through this year. That’s the simple part.”