Christian Horner believes the FIA's decision to terminate Michael Masi as F1's race director is "harsh", insisting the governing body ultimately succumbed to pressure which "isn't right".
Masi paid the price for his botched handling of F1's title decider in Abu Dhabi last December, circumventing the normal Safety Car rules to hasten the race's restart and produce a final lap shootout between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen that handed the title on a silver plate to the Dutchman.
The FIA's investigation into the race – the contents of which has yet to be made public – has led to a series of changes to the race direction's operations for 2022.
Two new race directors – Eduardo Freitas and Niels Wittich – will replace Masi while a new Virtual Race Control Room similar to football's VAR system will assist the FIA stewards in their decisions and calls over race incidents.
Furthermore, the late Charlie Whiting's long-standing assistant, F1 veteran Herbie Blash, will also be on site to support and advise F1's new race directors.
Horner welcomed Blash's presence and the introduction of new technology to help the stewards' decision-making process. But the Red Bull team boss still considers that Masi's exit is "harsh".
"It's a difficult one. It's the FIA's business. I think it is harsh; I think he was in a very difficult position last year," Horner told talkSPORT.
"When you look at what he has at his disposal in terms of resource, compared to what the teams have, it's such a massive difference.
"It's good to hear they are bringing in things like the VAR equivalent and one of the most experienced guys in Herbie Blash.
"I just think there was so much pressure put on the removal of Michael and that's not right. That's my personal feeling."
Horner reiterated his belief that Verstappen is a worthy F1 champion, the events of last December notwithstanding, insisting there has been "some hiding around the controversy" to try and devalue the Dutchman's merit.
"It was an intense period. You have to look at the season over the 22 races," Horner explained. "We had a lot of decisions go against us earlier in the year and penalties that weren't awarded and so on.
"We got a little bit lucky at the end and sometimes that happens in sport; it's not over until the whistle goes or the flag falls.
"Tactically, we were sharp at the end. When [Nicholas Latifi's] crash came five laps from the end we reacted immediately. We got Max in, pitted him for a new set of tyres, [while] Mercedes left Lewis out on what [were] 44-lap tyres at the end of their life.
"Max had to make that pass on the last lap, which he did. There has been some hiding around the controversy. The bottom line was that tactically we got it right. Max delivered the move and became the World Champion."
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