Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has accused rivals Mercedes of “bullying” behaviour resulting in the exit of race director Michael Masi.

“Was it right to fire him based on pressure that was placed on him from a rival team? That for me was wrong,” Horner said.

“That’s tantamount to bullying. It’s passively aggressive.”

Horner’s remarks, made in an exclusive interview with BBC Sport, are a reference to Mercedes, whose driver Lewis Hamilton refused to commit to coming back to Formula 1 this season until he had seen the results of the FIA’s inquiry into the race in Abu Dhabi.

Mercedes have declined to comment.

Hamilton was beaten to the drivers’ title by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen after a safety-car period late in the season’s final race in Abu Dhabi.

Masi has been offered a new role at the FIA – the sport’s governing body – and replaced as race director by two people who will alternate in the job, with a new support structure put in place to lessen the pressure on the role.

In a wide-ranging interview, Horner also discussed:

• His views on what happened in Abu Dhabi
• His driver Verstappen’s controversial driving tactics
• Verstappen’s new six-year contract with Red Bull
• His decision to oppose an increase in the number of ‘sprint’ events

On Masi, Horner added: “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.”

Horner has drawn some criticism from within F1 for talking about the need to be concerned for Masi’s mental health, given the amount of blame he and Red Bull levelled at officials in the course of 2021.

But he said he had spoken out because he felt it was unacceptable the way Masi had been treated, both by fans threatening him on social media, and by the FIA, which Horner believes did not give its race director enough support.

“We were on the receiving end of many of Michael’s errors,” Horner said. “But he is in a high-pressure role in a high-pressure sport.

“But what it is unforgivable is the trolling, the abuse online, the death threats that he and his family had. That absolutely cannot be condoned in any way.

“That has nothing to do with the sport. It’s just out-and-out bullying and I would not accept that in any way within our organisation.

“That’s why I spoke up for Michael because I felt that he had not had any support. He had not had any backing. That he’d been hung out to dry and that there was this concerted campaign that was very passive-aggressively focused against him.

“I will always stand up for someone who is being bullied. Bullying is not acceptable.”

On Abu Dhabi

Many senior figures within F1 accept that Masi failed to administer the rules correctly in Abu Dhabi in two different ways during a late safety-car period – in only letting some, rather than all, of the lapped cars out of the way of the leaders, and in the timing of the restart.

Hamilton had dominated the race and was on course to win an eighth world title. But the sequence of events at the end left him a sitting duck on old tyres, and on the single racing lap after the restart, Verstappen passed the Mercedes to win his first world title.

The FIA has effectively acknowledged mistakes were made, in both the decisions it has taken, and in remarks by executive director of single-seaters Peter Bayer on the race.

But Horner said: “I don’t believe the rules were not followed correctly. I think that they were applied perhaps differently to how they had been before by not allowing every single car to unlap.”

He added that “if [the stewards] felt the rules were not applied correctly, they wouldn’t have declared the result” following Mercedes’ post-race appeal.

On Red Bull’s behaviour in Abu Dhabi

Red Bull have been criticised for the way they pressured Masi in Abu Dhabi.

As Masi deliberated on what to do, Horner told him: “You only need one racing lap.”

Red Bull sporting director Jonathan Wheatley also pressured Masi, who then echoed Wheatley’s choice of words back to Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff when the Austrian complained about the way the race had been handled.

But Horner said he believed Red Bull had applied less pressure on Masi than Mercedes had in the race.

“You’ve got to report the facts,” Horner said. “Who was the first to call Michael? It wasn’t me. I’m only responding to the pressure being applied on him that I can hear in my ear from a rival team. It’s my job as the principal of the team that I represent to defend it.

“I think it was probably less than the pressure that our rivals were pushing on to not have a safety car. Or to back-track a lap. Or not to have a virtual safety car, or for the virtual safety car to go into a full safety car.”

And he said Masi’s decision to let only some lapped cars through had made no difference to the result.

“Looking at that incident, it wasn’t a big crash and the driver was not injured,” Horner said. “The car was near an exit [in the barriers] and it always looked the likelihood that would be cleared up, and there would have been no problem releasing all seven cars rather than just five.

“If they’d have released all seven them, would you have had a problem with it?

“It would make no difference to the outcome of the championship if they’d got all seven out of the way. The only mistake you could argue he made was not releasing the back two cars, that he could’ve done easily, but it had no material effect on the race.”

On not ending races behind safety car

Horner is one of several figures in F1 to admit that Masi was trying to follow guidance directing him to do his best to avoid races ending under a safety-car period.

In concert with the success of the fly-on-the-wall Netflix documentary series Drive To Survive, this has led to accusations that the sport has allowed entertainment to take priority over sporting integrity.

Horner said: “It would have been the worst possible finish to what had been a magnificent season. When you look at the intensity of it, for it to end under a safety car after a lame accident would have been shocking.”

When it was pointed out to him that the FIA had said the image of F1 had been “tarnished” by the controversy, Horner said: “Yeah, but the production director of Netflix was not sitting next to Michael Masi when he was making that decision.”

And asked whether the sport had allowed itself to lose sight of its priorities, Horner said: “F1 is still a sport, but sport is an entertainment. And one could also argue that there have been more people talking about Formula 1 in the past two and a half months when, traditionally, it would have been in hibernation.

“The viewing figures have never been bigger. Every promoter is sold out. Silverstone are trying to accommodate more seats and grandstand places. There’s never been more competition to host a Grand Prix. So, um, is it all that bad?”

On Verstappen’s aggressive driving

Verstappen drove an outstanding season in 2021, and it is widely acknowledged that he and Hamilton staged one of the all-time great title battles.

But the Dutchman’s aggressive racing tactics have drawn criticism, particularly his tendency to force rivals off the track in wheel-to-wheel battles.

Has Horner ever sat Verstappen down and advised him that he should consider driving less aggressively?

“We talk about any incident,” Horner said, “but it’s always going to be between me and him.

“Max is a forceful driver. He’s an aggressive driver. And that driving style is why he was voted the most popular driver in Formula 1 [in a survey of motorsport fans conducted by the sport]. You just know he is going to give 110%.”

Does Horner want him to carry on the way he is driving?

“Absolutely.”

In all the moves in question?

“Well, no, you’re always going to learn, aren’t you? And I think the way he drove last year, he showed tremendous maturity – and let’s not forget the others make mistakes.

“There are other drivers that make aggressive actions as well, you know. But, yeah, Max is an aggressive driver. That’s his DNA; that’s who he is. Yes, he will always be close to the limit and he will only learn from his experiences. I’ve got no doubt about that.”

On Verstappen’s new contract

Verstappen last week signed a contract extension with Red Bull that commits him to the team until 2028.

Horner said negotiations were “straightforward” and that the deal “shows real intent from both sides”.

Verstappen’s decision shows great faith in Red Bull in the context of the withdrawal of their engine partner Honda at the end of last season; with no insight into how the power units will compare this year, following the beginning of an engine development freeze; and with a new engine formula due for 2026.

Horner said: “It shows the confidence he has in us. Seeing the commitment and the investment of the group and the activities going within the group, I think that it made an awful lot of sense. There’s pressure on us to deliver. But that’s normal in this business.”

On Red Bull blocking sprint races

Last year, F1 staged three ‘sprint’ events, which used a short race on Saturday in place of qualifying to set the grid for the main grand prix.

The sport had wanted to double the number this year, and presented data to the teams that showed the sprints increased audiences and revenue.

But Red Bull were one of the big teams who blocked moves to increase the number of sprints.

Arguing that the budget cap was being reduced by $5m this year, and that more races meant more costs, they demanded more money than a simple pro-rata increase of the compensation payments that were made last year.

In the end, a compromise was reached to hold only three sprint events.

“Financially it makes zero sense to agree to any sprint races,” Horner said, “but in the interests of the sport, we conceded to agree to three. We’re not even being permitted the increase of inflation.

“When you’re seeing gas and electricity bills, the amount of inflation that is going on at the moment… when the budget cap was set, it was set at a limit in the midst of the coronavirus crisis that in many respects is irrelevant to what’s going on in the modern world. So that is why it was limited to three races.”