Michael Masi and Nikolas Tombazis have not been included in the latest FIA General Organisation amid questions over their future.
On Tuesday, the BBC reported Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton are awaiting the outcome of an analysis by the governing body into the decision-making process during the late Safety Car at last month’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Both team and driver believe race director Masi incorrectly applied the rules regarding lapped cars, with his actions manipulating the result of the race and the championship after Max Verstappen used his fresher tyres to overtake Hamilton on the final lap for victory.
Such is the damage done to Hamilton’s faith in the FIA, the seven-time world champion’s participation in the 2022 F1 season is also said to depend on the outcome of their investigation.
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While the British broadcaster stated the future of Masi is in doubt, it also quoted a senior source who claimed Mercedes had agreed a “quid pro quo” with the FIA not to proceed with an appeal of the result if Masi and the head of technical for single-seater racing Tombazis were removed from their posts.
The apparent targeting of Tombazis does seem strange given he had nothing to do with what took place in Abu Dhabi, but their unhappiness may stem from the rule changes that were pushed through for 2021 that hurt Mercedes’ performance and allowed Red Bull to catch up.
Regardless, the Brackley-based team denied there was any deal made, insisting they dropped the appeal due to guarantees of serious action by the FIA into what occurred at Yas Marina.
On Wednesday, however, Along the Racing Line tweeted documents that show both Masi and Tombazis have been removed in the January 2022 FIA General Organisation under new President Mohammed Ben Sulayem, this is after both were part of the October 2021 document pulled from the FIA website.
An interesting reorganisation in FIA administration from October 2021 to January 2022 according to the FIA site… Notice the differences?
(https://t.co/RB8kuUeouE) pic.twitter.com/yDxNI4FGNo
— Along The Racing Line (@ATRacingLine) January 11, 2022
Instead, only Secretary General for Motorsport Peter Bayer is listed under Single-Seater.
Of course, nothing is yet confirmed and it is still possible that both Masi and Tombazis are still in their positions but now report to Bayer in the new structure.
But at a time when pressure is growing on the FIA, there is the first sign of a response.