F1 CEO, Stefano Domenicali 'reveals' why the sport's owners have remained silent ever since the controversial season finale.
Almost two weeks after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Ross Brawn has yet to grace fans with his post-race debrief.
Normally the F1 technical boss, is only too eager to share his thought on the previous weekend's "thrilling" race and what lessons can be learned, especially if said lessons fit the narrative of introducing ever more gimmicks in a bid to make the racing even more "thrilling" - after all, thanks to 'Mikey' wasn't that the ultimate in Sprints?
Then again, the official F1 website on which Brawn's musing's appear doesn't do controversy, going out of its way not to post any news items that might appear 'negative'.
With the Abu Dhabi event being one of the most controversial in living memory, one can understand the desire to avoid the negatives however it seems odd that Brawn hasn't taken the opportunity to 'calm the waters', especially when he was only too quick to assure fans that in-race lobbying by team bosses will be banned next season, even though that is a decision surely down to the sport's rule makers, the FIA.
While Brawn and Liberty Media have chosen to remain silent in the wake of the Yas Marina controversy, the mainstream media hasn't.
Indeed, the sorry situation is probably best summed up by The Guardian, which ran a feature titled: 'Big egos, power struggles, stunning betrayals': how Netflix's Drive to Survive turned Americans into F1 fans.
"The show's brilliance is in its ability to express the sport in terms a Real Housewives fan can process," it began.
Asked the reason for the deafening silence from those who will gain most from the controversy - assuming we accept that all publicity is good publicity - Stefano Domenicali explained: "We have already spoken with the FIA president. We talked about the priorities he will have to face, and there are many.
"But, at this stage, it is right to remain silent so as not to create further controversy in an area that was very overheated," he added, according to F1i. "But I would like to say that we come from an extraordinary season, followed by more than two billion people.
"The last Abu Dhabi GP was the most followed sporting event in 2021. These are stratospheric numbers that we must be proud of."
Other than the on-track antics of Messrs Hamilton and Verstappen, those 'Real Housewives fans' have been entertained by the back-biting and name calling of team principals, Christian Horner and Toto Wolff.
However, despite those "stratospheric numbers" that F1 "must be proud of", and those anxious radio calls that helped make Abu Dhabi "the most followed sporting event in 2021", Domenicali claims the exchanges between the pair must be tempered as they are detrimental to the sport's image.
"Those who live with certainties mean that they sleep well," he said. "But we have many doubts, and we have to face them. We have issues that will eventually have to be managed.
"We will have to evaluate day-by-day the relationship that must be recovered between Red Bull and Mercedes, to avoid the personal clashes that we have seen that serve no benefit."
Which takes us back to those 'Real Housewives fans', for with F1 enjoying "stratospheric numbers" and Abu Dhabi being "the most followed sporting event in 2021" why on earth would you want to 'kill off' one of the main attractions?
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