Steiner has "full confidence" FIA will fix F1 race director issue

The FIA is conducting a full investigation into what happened at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, particularly the role race director Michael Masi played with the late Safety Car period.

Masi's future remains unclear with the FIA's head of single-seaters Peter Bayer suggesting that there could be a new race director in place for the 2022 season.

The FIA was quick to respond, stating no decision had yet been made as a result of their analysis.

New president Mohammed Ben Sulayem is at the centre of the inquiry with the findings set to be presented to the F1 Commission later this month.

They will then be approved by the World Motor Sport Council on March 18 in Bahrain.

Speaking after the launch of Haas’ 2022 livery, Steiner said that the FIA is working "diligently" to improve things.

"I would say I didn’t give a lot of recommendations to president Mohammed [Ben Sulayem]," Steiner said. "We maybe talked about it but they are private talks and I don’t want to go there. I know that they are diligently working on it to make it, I wouldn’t say better because it’s the wrong word, but to make it mainly better for the race director.

"Race director is a very difficult job, I am not here to protect Michael or anything, but it is very difficult, and I think the sport has changed so much and some of the things have stayed behind. But I am sure they will come up with some ideas and when we are presented with them we will see what they are doing.

"But I didn’t give them any recommendation of what to do as a specific one, you know? We talked about the issues a little bit, and we all know them, so I think the FIA is working diligently and we are moving to a better future."

When asked if he feels Masi needs more support, Steiner said: "I’ve got enough on my plate at my company to be honest and I wouldn’t like to go into the FIA to tell them what they should be doing because I know they are doing things but not the details in the things, contracts and stuff like this. 

"I’m not trying to avoid the question, I honestly do not know their structure in there completely. We all know Michael Masi is the race director but I don’t know what is underlying and how to make it better. As I said, I am pretty busy with what I am doing at Haas F1, so I am not getting involved. 

"I have got full confidence in the FIA that they will fix it because everybody speaks about it. You guys [the media] ask questions but this would be questions more to the FIA than to me."