Christian Horner: Mercedes pressure on F1 race director Masi 'tantamount to bullying'

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has reiterated his belief that Mercedes pressured the FIA to fire F1 race director Michael Masi.

Masi paid the price for his botched handling of F1's title decider in Abu Dhabi last December, when he circumvented the normal Safety Car rules to hasten the race's restart and produce a final lap shootout between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen that handed the title on a silver plate to the Dutchman.

The FIA's investigation into the race — the contents of which has yet to be made public — has led to a series of changes to the race direction's operations for 2022 and to the introduction of a new structure from which Masi is absent.

While acknowledging Masi's errors, Horner believes that the decision by F1's governing body to fire the Aussie was unfair.

"Was it right to fire him based on pressure that was placed on him from a rival team? That for me was wrong," Horner told BBC Sport.

"That’s tantamount to bullying. It’s passively aggressive.

"Yes, Michael did make mistakes and it was frustrating, but you have to look at the role that he was in and the tools that he had at his disposal.

"You can’t just place the blame on Michael. It’s unfair to do that.

"We were on the receiving end of many of Michael’s errors, but he is in a high-pressure role in a high-pressure sport."