2022 F1 Monaco GP race control was 'worse off than' during Michael Masi's time

F1's race control and decision-making seemed so shambolic during the 2022 F1 Monaco GP that Spanish journalist Antonio Lobato felt even Michael Masi would be an improvement.

The FIA fell under heavy criticism after confusion and hesitation amidst the onset of rain that delayed the start of the race in Monte Carlo. When they finally had the cars on the grid running the formation lap behind the Safety Car, the Circuit de Monaco was too water-logged, resulting in a red flag.

Lobato did not hold back in his criticism of Frietas and the entire race control on soymotor.com's Twitch channel following the last race in the Principality. He said:

“There has been a mixture of stories because there is a part that we can’t judge, which is that they have said that they have had a power supply problem in the grid, that they couldn’t put the whole traffic light system. We accept that because we can’t say otherwise either. But there were some very strange things, especially a lot of confusion when it came to sending messages. I base myself only on page 3 of what Formula 1 sends us, which is the page where we have all the messages from Race Direction, which I would like to think is the same that the teams receive, although the teams must have other types of information via radio.”

The Spaniard went on to add, saying:

“What appeared on that page was very little and very poorly explained and, in fact, the start of the race is a bit surreal. The message of ‘The formation lap is about to start behind the Safety Car’ and then they do two laps, it’s no longer a formation lap per se, and yet the race time doesn’t start. Then there came a moment when those of us who were broadcasting, Toni, Pedro, and myself, had a doubt. We said, ‘Let’s see, has the race started or hasn’t it started?’ Because the stopwatch didn’t move, it didn’t move a second and they had done two laps and that’s when the red flag came out and they went inside.”

F1 Race Control, under new director Eduardo Freitas, did not cover itself in glory either once the showers subsided with reports of heated arguments. Freitas, who is also overseeing the World Endurance Championship, took what seemed like an eternity to get Bernd Mayländer out on track to gauge the chances of the F1 cars aquaplaning.

---

Stricter race directors are not necessarily good for F1, according to Spanish journalist Antonio Lobato

Antonio Lobato feels that the stringent approach of the new race directors could do more harm than good for the sport.

The FIA replaced Michael Masi following the controversial 2021 F1 Abu Dhabi GP with the duo of Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas, who now alternate as race directors for the ongoing 2022 season.

During the aforementioned discussion following the 2022 F1 Monaco GP on soymotor.com's Twitch stream, Lobato said:

“Michael Masi was ‘brushed off.’ What he did was very big but I don’t want to see a situation like that, like Abu Dhabi, in a Grand Prix because this has been a bit chaotic and I think they’ve lost the plot a lot. I don’t want to think that there is an unprecedented tension like in Abu Dhabi because then I don’t know what these men are going to do, but I think we are worse off than before.”

Everyone involved in the sport will now train their focus towards the forthcoming 2022 F1 Azerbaijan GP, where race control will hope not to grab headlines for all the wrong reasons.