Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has reiterated his belief that Mercedes pressured the FIA to fire F1 race director Michael Masi, calling the German outfit's push a clear case of "bullying".
Masi paid the price for his botched handling of F1's title decider in Abu Dhabi last December, when he circumvented 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 and to the introduction of a new structure from which Masi is absent.
While acknowledging Masi's errors, Horner believes that the decision by F1's governing body to fire the Aussie was unfair.
"Was it right to fire him based on pressure that was placed on him from a rival team? That for me was wrong," Horner told BBC Sport.
"That’s tantamount to bullying. It’s passively aggressive.
"Yes, Michael did make mistakes and it was frustrating, but you have to look at the role that he was in and the tools that he had at his disposal.
"You can’t just place the blame on Michael. It’s unfair to do that.
"We were on the receiving end of many of Michael’s errors, but he is in a high-pressure role in a high-pressure sport."
One could argue that Red Bull's pit wall, through its radio communication with Masi, often spared no effort in the past to influence a stewards' call.
In the wake of the Abu Dhabi controversy, the FIA has decided that it will no longer broadcast the radio communication between teams and F1's race direction. Horner disagrees with the move.
"You’ve got to report the facts," Horner stated. "Who was the first to call Michael? It wasn’t me. I’m only responding to the pressure being applied on him that I can hear in my ear from a rival team.
"It’s my job as the principal of the team that I represent to defend it.
"I think it was probably less than the pressure that our rivals were pushing on to not have a Safety Car. Or to back-track a lap. Or not to have a Virtual Safety Car, or for the Virtual Safety Car to go into a full Safety Car."
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Horner revealed that following the FIA's decision to dismiss Masi, he reached out to the latter to offer his support. The Red Bull boss also denounced the "unforgiveable" backlash suffered by F1's ousted race director online.
"What is unforgivable is the trolling, the abuse online, the death threats that he and his family had. That absolutely cannot be condoned in any way," commented Horner.
"That has nothing to do with the sport. It’s just out-and-out bullying and I would not accept that in any way within our organisation.
"That’s why I spoke up for Michael because I felt that he had not had any support. He had not had any backing.
"That he’d been hung out to dry and that there was this concerted campaign that was very passive-aggressively focused against him.
"I will always stand up for someone who is being bullied. Bullying is not acceptable."
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