Toto Wolff says a "bromance" relationship between Michael Masi and Red Bull sporting director Jonathan Wheatley "turned" the FIA race director and led to the controversial events that marred F1's season finale in Abu Dhabi.
Wolff made the claim in an upcoming Sky Sports documentary called 'Duel: Hamilton vs Verstappen' that will air this Sunday on Sky Sports Main Event.
In it, the Mercedes boss, still reeling from Lewis Hamilton's staggering defeat at Yas Marina at the hands of Max Verstappen following a one-lap shootout between the two drivers, contends that Red Bull exercised undue influence on Masi, not only in Abu Dhabi but also in the previous race in Saudi Arabia.
In Jeddah, Masi negotiated with Wheatley and struck a deal with the Red Bull sporting boss over Verstappen's restart grid position in the race, while the Aussie appeared to cave into Wheatley's request for a swift relaunch of the race in Abu Dhabi during the late safety car period.
In the Sky documentary, Wolff calls the relationship between Wheatley and Masi a "bromance" that "turned" the latter.
"Jonathan Wheatley has done his job," contends Wolff. "He's turned Michael Masi the race director, not only in Abu Dhabi but before, and probably Max owes him a lot."
An investigation by the FIA into Masi's handling of the final laps of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has led to the Aussie's demise and to a significant restructuring of F1's race control and its procedures.
"His decisions were wrong and I'm sure that he regrets them," added Wolff. "The FIA should have seen much earlier that there was a problem.
"There was a problem with the structure. There was a problem of personalities.
"It's like a football game that is 1-0 for one team and suddenly the referee says, 'now it's golden goal. 0-0, whoever scores the next goal wins'.
"'And by the way, we have to play without boots", says Wolff, referring to the crucial fresh tyre advantage enjoyed by Verstappen on the race's restart.
"I feel for Max. He merits the world championship... but there's only talk about Abu Dhabi."
Wolff vows to "move on" from last year's bitter defeat, but it's unlikely the Mercedes boss will cross paths with Masi anytime soon.
"I haven't spoken to him and I don't want to speak to him ever again," concluded the Austrian.
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