Toto Wolff has claimed he repeatedly warned Michael Masi not to be "stubborn" or "arrogant" during the 2021 Formula 1 season, saying he tried to guide the former race director before the controversial title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Masi broke the rules he was supposed to enforce around the safety car, forcing a final-lap restart at the end of the title decider between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
Verstappen passed Hamilton on the lap to claim his first championship and to deny the then-Mercedes driver what would have been a record eighth title.
Wolff spoke about the controversy on the High Performance Podcast in 2024, where he was asked what the overriding emotions were at the time.
"Angry. Not anything [like] depressed or sad. Just angry," Wolff said. "Angry that an individual to take an eighth championship away from the best driver in the world by a decision."
Masi was removed from his role after the season and has not been back in a prominent motor racing position since.
Wolff went on to state that Masi, who joined SRO Motorsports Australia last week as head of sporting operations, is no longer relevant in the sport.
He explained that he had tried to help Masi and offered him counsel through the season and that the outcome was avoidable.
"I really tried to speak to Michael and guide him all along the year," Wolff said. "I said, 'listen I've been in the sport for a long time, listen to the drivers, don't always be stubborn in your decision making, don't be arrogant.'
"I tried that for the good of the sport, and obviously also for us as a team not to be vulnerable to situations that could be totally detrimental.
"So in that sense, this is just what happened is inexcusable. You could say empathy should make me realise how he feels. I realise how it feels. And I know that's not good, it's bad, but he could have thought about it all year long, when people, not only me, tried to support him in the right way.
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"So sometimes you have to just realise that someone is just doing his own thing or taking his own decisions. So for me, I don't care about it anymore. Now you and I speak about it and we waste three minutes of our time, but he has no relevance."
Although Wolff said he is over it emotionally, there are regular reminders about what the team lost that day.
"Every week," he said when asked how often he thinks about it. "I mainly think about it because I think Lewis deserved to be the greatest of all time with eight world championship titles. And you can argue all along about that year.
"I think Max and Lewis were deserving champions. There were instances during the year where Max lost some points that he shouldn't have lost. You look at the crash in Monza both of them had. So both deserving champions, but on that particular afternoon in Abu Dhabi, it was unfair."
