The Australian who made the most controversial decision in Formula One history has broken his seven-month silence to reveal he feared for his life in the wake of the bombshell call that cost Lewis Hamilton his 8th world title.

In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Telegraph, former Formula One race-director Michael Masi has admitted he was scared to walk down the street after he was bombarded with death-threats and hate mail.

Raised in his grandmother’s four-bedroom home in Fairfield, the Western Sydney boy who scored his dream job as F1’s top steward became the “most hated man in the world” when he imposed a championship costing penalty on Hamilton during the title deciding F1 race in December last year.

“There were some dark days,” Masi said.

“I still remember walking down the street in London a day or two later. I thought I was okay until I started looking over my shoulder. I was looking at people wondering if they were going to get me.”

Masi is only ready to tell his story now – and like most stories, his begins with a dream.

GROWING UP WITH A DREAM

Masi’s Formula One dream began on a dusty old racetrack in Western Sydney.

Decrepit, derelict and eventually torn down, Oran Park could not have been further from the glitz and glamour of places like Monaco and Monza.

“I actually grew up wanting to be a chef,’ Masi said.

“I even worked as a barman and waiter at a restaurant in Brighton Le Sands, but all that changed and realised that wanted to work in the sport that I loved my entire life

Masi began his career in motorsport as a volunteer when he was 16.

“My first job was in the Super Touring category,” Masi said.

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“I did anything and everything they asked, but in truth I pretty much just carried sh** around and got coffees.”

The sound of engines, the smell of burning rubber, confirmed Masi’s love with the sport. He put away his apron and bought himself a pair of earplugs.

“What I really love are the people,” Masi said. “And I loved the organisational side and the business side of it. There were all these super successful business people in the sport, which was their hobby. I learned as much as I could from them.”

Masi soon made the sport his business. A go-getter with a knack for getting things done, he rifled his way through the ranks. He went from Super Touring to Supercars. From Supercars to the Confederation of Australian Motorsport.

And that’s when the call that would change his life came.

THE DEPUTY

Fast forward to 2018 and Masi was being groomed to become the next Supercars race director. He was sitting at a dinner in Adelaide on the eve of the Clipsal 500 when his phone rang.

‘Oh,’ he said to his dinner guests, which included his mentor Tim Schenken.

“It’s Charlie Whiting. I better get this.”

Whiting, of course, was the Formula One race director. Known by every Formula One fan, Whiting had been the sport’s chief official since 1988.

“I was like ‘what is Charlie Whiting calling me for?’ Masi said.

“But anyway I walked out and took the call and he asked me if I was interested in becoming one of his deputies. If I wanted to be his understudy.”

Of course he wanted to become his understudy. He had spent the last 22 years working his backside off to get his Formula One chance.

Masi had to pinch himself when he joined Whiting in the Formula One race control centre in Melbourne that year.

He spent the rest of the year by Whiting‘s side, sitting in a NASA like room full of screens, learning the ropes.

He finished the year with nine races under his belt.

READY OR NOT

Masi was back in Australia at the beginning of 2019 for the Australian GP, which would be his first as a deputy race director.

Fresh-faced and raring to go, he walked into Whiting’s hotel at 7.15am ahead of an 8am briefing at the track.

“It got to 7.30am and Charlie had still not come down,“ Masi said.

Masi went numb when he saw the hotel staffer run across the lobby with a defibrillator. Masi was soon informed that his mentor had suffered a pulmonary embolism. Dead, age 66.

“I was in complete shock,” Masi said.

“I had lost my mentor. My friend. The man that had given me my shot in Formula One.”

But Masi had to pull himself together. He had a race to run.

“FIA president Jean Todt just looked at me and said ‘Michael you are sitting in the deputy’s seat, so you will be the race director for this weekend.’

As part of his shock new role, Masi was told he would have to brief the Formula One drivers ahead of the GP.

“Yeah I was nervous,” Masi said. “I was watching them on TV one day and there I am addressing them the next. I had not met any of them. I didn’t know them and they most definitely did not know me. It was daunting but I think with what was going on, it was just another part of a very surreal week.“

Masi still doesn’t know how he made it through the weekend – but he passed what was the most difficult of tests with flying colours.

His talent as a race director was undeniable. So much so that he was appointed as Whiting’s official replacement following the flawless job he did as an interim director over the next nine rounds.

“I loved it,” Masi said. “It really was my dream job.”

Over the next 18 months, Masi did not only a five-star job as race director, but also helped the sport navigate its way through the global catastrophe which was Covid.

Coming into the last race of the 2021 season – which just happened to be the most anticipated finale in Formula One history with Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen set to square off in a championship deciding fight – Masi’s future looked bright.

Until lap 51.

That‘s when it all went to hell.

THE DECISION

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff picked up his headset and screamed.

“No Michael,” Wolff said.

“No Michael. No. That was so not right. Michael … What was that? Michael, to race control. Michael you need to reinstate the lap before that is not right?”

Wolff’s driver, Lewis Hamilton, had just lost the Formula One world championship following what would become the most controversial decision in the history of the sport.

It all began on lap 51 when a backmarker Nicholas Latifi crashed into a barrier.

Masi called the safety car, as he should have. And seven laps later, when the track was clear, he resumed the race, which he also should have.

But Masi also made the decision to allow the five lapped cars that were between race leader Lewis Hamilton and second placed driver Verstappen to unlap themselves.

Whether or not it was the right call is still being debated.

Either wrong or right, removing the lapped cars allowed Verstappen, who was on fresher tyres after pitting during the safety car period, to hunt down Hamilton and pass him to claim the world title.

It‘s fair to say Wolff thought the decision was wrong.

The outspoken Austrian told both Masi and the world as much when he protested the result on the live broadcast.

Both his tirade and Masi‘s response were beamed into the homes of 108 million people.

“Toto, it’s called a motor race okay,” Masi replied over the radio.

“We went to car racing.”

Masi knew his decision would prove controversial – but he could not have foreseen what was to come.

It would begin with death-threats and end with him losing his dream job.

THE DEATH THREATS

Masi picked up his phone later that night. Amid talk of legal action from Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes and calls for his job, Masi wanted to reach out to his family and let them know he was okay.

And he was – at least until he got his first death threat

“Thankfully, I don‘t have an Instagram account,” Masi said. “Or Twitter. I don’t have any of that. Being old-school I do however have Facebook, which I used to stay in touch with family and friends. I opened my messages that night to check in with them. I had no idea that I could receive them from people I did not know. But I was wrong. I was confronted with hundreds of messages. I wouldn’t say thousands but certainly hundreds.

“And they were shocking. Racist, abusive, vile, they called me every name under the sun. And there were death threats. People saying, they were going to come after me and my family.

“And they kept on coming. Not just on my Facebook but also on my LinkedIn, which is supposed to be a professional platform for business. It was the same type of abuse.”

Masi tried to dismiss the messages. He stopped reading them and attempted to put them out of his mind.

“At first, I just thought I would ignore it and get on with it because I knew it could take me to a very dark place,” Masi said.

“I tried to cut myself off mentally, and I thought I could.”

But he couldn’t. In fact Masi could not even walk down the street.

“I mostly kept it all to myself,” Masi said.

“I told a few people but not many. I didn’t want to concern my family and friends. I didn’t want them worrying too. The FIA (Masi’s employers) knew but I think I downplayed it all to everyone including them.”

THE AFTERMATH

Masi’s next three months were a living hell. The face of arguably the biggest controversy in F1 history, he was front page news across the globe. Hamilton and Mercedes had made him public enemy No. 1, calling for him to be sacked and threatening legal action.

And the death threats continued to come.

Masi returned to Australia and fought a private battle with his mental health.

“I didn’t want to talk to anyone,” Masi said.

“Not even family and friends. I only talked to my close family – but very briefly. I also lost my appetite. I have heard some people become binge eaters during times like this but I didn’t eat much. It did have a physical impact, but it was more mental. I just wanted to be in a bubble. I had no desire to talk to them. I just wanted to be alone, which was very challenging.”

Masi put on a brave face and returned to work in January. He travelled to Saudi Arabia for a track inspection and did his best to ignore the storm that was still raging.

But, following a race director’s conference in Geneva, he was stood down on February 16.

“It took me a while to process it all,” Masi said.

“But at the end of the day I thought it was best for me to come back home and be close to my support network.

“I didn‘t go and talk to a professional. With the benefit of hindsight, I probably should have. I should have gone and spoken to someone in a professional sense. But in saying that, I had some amazing people around me that could see it and were checking in daily. I was super fortunate to have that support network.”

Masi cannot talk about the decision he made in Abu Dhabi due to Non-Disclosure Agreements with the FIA – but he can talk about the future.

“The whole experience has made me a much stronger person,” Masi said. “I have just had the longest break in my professional career and I have used the time to reconnect with family and friends. I have also done all that self-maintenance which you can neglect when you are in the grind.

“I have a number of exciting options going forward. I am considering a number of different projects, both domestic and globally. My intention is to base myself out of Australia and to use all the skills I have gained in what has been an incredible journey so far and one I am extremely proud and thankful for.”