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FIA president Mohammad bin Sulayem has blamed Formula 1’s “toxic social media” culture for Michael Massey’s resignation as race director after the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
In the 2021 season finale, Massi was at the center of one of the most contentious moments in F1 history when he failed to properly execute the safety car procedure, allowing Max Verstappen to pass Lewis Hamilton on the final lap to win the world title. .
The Australian was replaced as F1’s race director ahead of the 2022 season, with the FIA ​​announcing Massi’s departure from the governing body last July.
After returning to his home country, Marcy told sydney daily telegraph A barrage of death threats made him feel like “the most annoying person in the world”.
FIA steward Silvia Bellot was also threatened at last year’s United States Grand Prix for her wrong decision to penalize Fernando Alonso, but it was later withdrawn, with Ben Su Ben Sulayem has called for an end to the online abuse – which he claims contributed to Massey’s departure.
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According to quotes circulating in the Mirror, he said: “I’ve been talking to [Masi] at first.
“There was human error there and I don’t think he wanted to go any further because of what he got from social media, toxic social media.
“I spoke to him and it’s not fair to him. The FIA ​​is always supportive. It’s the same thing that happened to Silvia and it happened to some of our members – threats.
“I’ve also had some threats to reverse the outcome [in Abu Dhabi], but I didn’t take them seriously. But now we stand against the toxic social media that will affect our sport.
“I firmly believe that if we don’t take a stand, we may find that the future damage to the sport will be irreparable.”
F1 launched the Drive It Out campaign last summer with the aim of spreading more respect among the fanbase amid growing concerns about increased abuse online and on track.
Increased abuse is an ugly but inevitable side effect of F1’s growing popularity
In the early days of F1’s hybrid era, several races were played in front of empty stands, and in a sense it’s comforting that people care so much about the sport today.
Lately, this passion has often crossed the line into the realm of blatant abuse, but we must also be careful not to conflate the two.
There is a certain irony in the fact that drivers have been claiming F1 is nothing without fans, as races were played behind closed doors at the height of the pandemic, and then complaining about being booed by them, like the Mercedes drivers George Russell did in Canada last year.
Does booing — which is common in more traditional partisan sports — really count as abuse? Or is it just part of the pantomime of modern sports?
If a so-called fan is stupid enough to spend money on a rival driver’s cap and then film himself setting fire to it, as we saw in Austria last season, they clearly have more money than sense and are best ignored. The same goes for complete strangers, there is so much to say in a Twitter mention.
The rise in name-calling is an ugly but inevitable side effect of F1’s recent rise in popularity, but in the face of this noise, turning the other face has become a lost art.
article Michael Massey blames ‘toxic social media’ reaction after quitting Abu Dhabi appeared first on Planetf1.com.
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