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via Reuters

via Reuters

The radio communication between the FIA race director and the teams was a huge talking point in the 2021 season. F1 decided to broadcast the communication for the first time last season to give fans more insights.

But this backfired when we saw how the teams and their bosses pressured the race director into making decisions, which led to the controversial ending of the season. 2009 world champion Jenson Button is in favor of banning the team radios of team bosses and race director.

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Maybe they shouldn’t have their opinions voiced to Michael Masi: Button

As reported by GPBlog, the former Brawn driver mentioned that the team principals influenced the decisions made by Michael Masi last season.

In the dying moments of the season finale, we clearly saw how both Christian Horner and Toto Wolff were pressurizing Masi to make the decision that best suits them.

“Maybe they shouldn’t have their opinions voiced to Michael Masi. Maybe that’s a way forward, so Michael Masi can make the decision on his own,” said Button.

via Getty

“I think it’s wrong because there’s so much emotion coming from the teams but also for Michael Masi it’s difficult because of so much adrenaline.

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A lot of people watch what he does, so I think it’s better that the stewards can discuss it between themselves and come up with a decision and obviously have the rule book in front of them as well,” said the former McLaren driver.

Well, it was interesting to see how the teams communicated with the FIA when the exchange was broadcasted. But it did not shed a good light on the governing body and how they handle on-track incidents.

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It is better to ban the direct line between team bosses and Masi and keep the channels open elsewhere. Let’s wait and see how the sport tackles this situation ahead of the 2022 season.

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