Saudi Arabia 2021: To open Funk was "clearly the wrong decision"

– In 2021, Formula 1 raced for the first time in Saudi Arabia – and experienced a memorable race right at the premiere in Jeddah. The focus was not only on the drivers, but also on the then race director Michael Masi and the legendary “bazaar” of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

The background was a discussion between Masi and the then Red Bull sporting director Jonathan Wheatley during a race interruption, in which a penalty for Max Verstappen was “negotiated” after he had gained an advantage by cutting the track.

Because the radio communication between teams and race control was also broadcast on television in the 2021 season, the whole world heard the conversation – just like various radio messages later at the controversial season finale in Abu Dhabi.

“So if you ask me for my personal opinion, it was clearly the wrong decision to do that,” says later Formula 1 race director Niels Wittich about the decision at the time to include radio communication in the TV broadcasts.

What went wrong in Saudi Arabia 2021, Niels Wittich?

In an exclusive video interview on the YouTube channel of Formel1.de, he explains that it was “certainly super interesting” for viewers to get these behind-the-scenes insights. “For them, it was a new world,” says Wittich, who was Formula 1 race director from 2022 to 2024.

“It was COVID, you also had to somehow inspire the spectators. That means you just wanted to bring a little more value to the sport to make everyone happy,” explains Wittich. That’s why Masi also agreed to publish the radio communication at the time.

Wittich: Teams constantly wanted to gain advantages

In retrospect, however, it was “definitely the wrong story,” emphasizes Wittich, who explains: “Towards the finale, it naturally completely escalated.” But even earlier in the season, the teams had repeatedly tried to gain an advantage through discussions with race control.

According to Wittich, this led to Masi being increasingly inundated with requests. “The workload on the race director, that’s not insignificant,” he emphasizes, explaining: “It’s not like you just sit in race control and watch TV nicely and say: ‘Oh, what a great race!'”

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“You have to constantly look at all sections [of the track]. You have to talk to all your people. So there’s a lot, a lot going on permanently in the background,” says Wittich, who explains: “Apart from the fact that all this radio communication was wrong, it simply wasn’t feasible.”

After the controversial 2021 season finale, Masi lost his job, and when two new race directors, Wittich and Eduardo Freitas, were installed for Formula 1 in 2022, the FIA put a stop to the constant radio discussions and thus also to the TV broadcast.

Since then, the teams no longer have a direct connection to the race director. All conversations between teams and race control are conducted by another representative of race control, who passes on important information to the race director.