Seidl not in favour of FIA radio broadcasting

07/12/2021
NEWS STORY

McLaren boss, Andreas Seidl admits that he is not a fan of the decision to broadcast Michael Masi's radio discussions with the teams.

As if the bickering between the drivers, race engineers and team bosses wasn't enough, as Formula One Management seeks to play-up the Netflixisation of the sport in terms of rivalries and ill feeling it is now offering race fans access to race director, Michael Masi's conversations.

Already under intense scrutiny and pressure, often blamed for those decisions actually made by the stewards, Masi had a nightmare of a race on Sunday, at one stage the Australian even eclipsing Nikita Mazepin in terms of mob outrage on social media.

For many, the low point, other than his plea to Mercedes that "I can only push as many buttons as I can", was the 'bargaining' with Red Bull and its German rival over what place Max Verstappen would take on the grid at the second restart.

Far from enhancing the F1 experience, many believe that broadcasting such conversations actually puts the sport in a bad light, among them is Andreas Seidl.

"I think the only reason why it is a debate now is because it gets transmitted," he tells Speedcafe.com. "Before, you didn't hear that stuff. That's a big difference.

"To be honest, from my point of view, I was never a fan to broadcast this communication," he admits, "because there's also things going back and forward regarding safety, et cetera, which I don't think necessarily should always be broadcast.

"But it's my opinion on it," he continued. "I don't think that the communication principle has changed, I would say in terms of what's going backwards and forwards it's even more control than in the past because everyone knows it gets broke."

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Published: 07/12/2021
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