Technical directives linked to title battle - Masi

The spate of so-called ’technical directives’ in recent days and weeks is directly related to the battle for the 2021 world championship.

So far in 2021, the FIA has issued a range of directives relating to wing flexibility, tyre pressures and pitstop speed, and it seems that the trend is being powered by Mercedes and Red Bull.

Alfa Romeo boss Frederic Vasseur hit out at the trend, joking that F1 teams are now dealing with "more technical directives than press releases".

"The next one will be about front wing deflection," he predicted. "I don’t think it’s the right way to do it like this, in the middle of the season."

Michael Masi, F1’s race director, admits that the spate of technical directives does indeed relate directly to the "escalating battle for the world championship".

"We haven’t been in this situation for quite a long time, so there is a need for clarification of certain issues and the technical directives help us to do that," he said in Austria.

"I wouldn’t call it a mechanism for managing the championship, but it is a way of explaining certain provisions of the regulations from the point of view of our technical department," Masi added.

"The purpose is to prevent the filing of protests."

According to championship leader Max Verstappen’s father Jos, the situation is also being amplified by personal relationships.

"Helmut (Marko) and Toto (Wolff) don’t like each other," the Dutchman smiled to Sport1. "But it’s just part of the game in competition like this."