Former FIA top official Michael Masi is running the NextGen NZ Championship. Photo / AFP
Former Formula 1 race director Michael Masi has brought his long involvement in global motorsport to New Zealand in his role as event director for the Repco NextGen NZ Championship.
Masi reached the pinnacle of motorsport administration in his F1 role at the FIA, and after a controversial exit in 2021 was snapped up by the Australian Supercars Championship as chairman of the Supercars Commission in 2022.
Having recently stepped down from the Supercars role, Masi is keen to bring his accumulated knowledge to Motorsport New Zealand (MSNZ). Deborah Day, MSNZ president, expects Masi’s experience at the highest levels of global motorsport will help sharpen MSNZ’s systems, elevate the national championships, and support and mentor the governing body’s officials.
“Deborah Day actually reached out to me, and following discussions with Josie Spillane and Tony Quinn [both NextGen], things stared to develop from there,” Masi told the Weekend Herald.
“I love working with people, helping them, mentoring them and wanting to improve things, which was a very clear mandate to look at developing a blueprint and bit of a pathway forward for Motorsport New Zealand.
“From my point of view, it’s getting all of the different inputs from officials, competitors and others to assist them with their respective roles. Also to understand what barriers there are and what can be improved; not just right now, but in the future be it regulatory, be it training, be it a true pathway for officiating or it could be updates to regulations.
“It’s quite a broad role and the big part with me is just want to help, to make things better for everyone.
“Credit goes to the Motorsport New Zealand board, Repco NextGen NZ Championship and Toyota New Zealand for supporting the initiative.”
Masi’s first gig in New Zealand is to oversee the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship (FROC), which is the leading category in the NextGen NZ Championship. Formerly known as the Toyota Racing Series, the championship has been around for 20 years and is globally recognised as a breeding ground for junior formula drivers who have aspirations to make it to F1 or other FIA world championships.
Most recent graduates into the blue riband of motor racing include Liam Lawson, Lando Norris, Lance Stroll, Arvid Lindblad, Franco Colapinto and Yuki Tsunoda. Masi had a helping hand, alongside Charlie Whiting (Masi’s predecessor as F1 race director and mentor), in getting FROC approved as a series where drivers could gain super license points towards being able to get onto an F1 grid.
“New Zealand has an abundantly rich and proud heritage in motorsport. Having seen the series in the past and the talent that came out of it, it’s a great stepping stone.
“We [Charlie and Masi] started having discussions [super licence points] with Nico [Nicolas Caillol, motorsport manager at Toyota Gazoo Racing New Zealand] back in 2019 and the series fitted well with the formula regional philosophy,” said Masi.
This season’s field is one of the best assembled in many years and according to Masi there is some serious talent in the field, and the organiser should be very proud of being able to attract such quality over the four weekends of the series.
“The talent on offer is amazing and the format of having 15 races in four weekends is a challenge for the teams and drivers,” he said.
“It’s a great format to test up-and-coming young drivers and I look forward to seeing who comes out on top.”
After rounds at Hampton Downs, Taupō International Motorsport Park, this weekend the championship is at Teretonga Park, Invercargill, before the final round at Highlands Motorsport Park, which also hosts the New Zealand Grand Prix.
The series is lead by American Ugo Ugochukwu on 194 points, followed by Japanese driver Kanato Le (161), first of the Kiwis Louis Sharp (159), Jin Nakamura (153) and Supercars driver Ryan Wood (150).