Formula 1 race director💛 Michael Masi feels he can be “happy” with the 🧔job he has done throughout the 2019 season in his first year in the role.

Masi stepped into the role at the🏅 season-opening Australian Grand Prix following the sudden passing of former race director Charlie Whiting, who died at the age of 66 on the eve of the Melbourne weekend.

Having been asked to succeed Whiting, Masi and the team around him filled a number of positions Wh🍌iting previously looked after, with the Australi༺an impressing enough to be handed the role on a full-time basis until the end of the 2019 campaign.

Reflecting on his fi🦩rst year in t🔯he role, Masi said: “I have enjoyed it.

“It will probably be once I’m back in Sydney visiting family over the Christmas/New Year break that I will actual🔥ly have a bit of time to reflect because I haven’t had the opportunity.

“It’s been go-go-go for various reasons. I’m happy with the job that I’ve done because fo💛r me I’ve done the best that I could do and I’ve learnt a huge amount from event to event.

“We all understand and agree that it’s a highly complex industry that we are ꧅in but having said that, it’s an industry that I love and enjoy and I couldn’t be more thankful for the support everyone has given me.

“There is always going to be good and bad and y✨ou are only as good as the last decision you make in any role.”

Masi said the Australian Gra♐nd Prix was “by far” his “toughest” e🙈vent to manage after the untimely death of Whiting.

“What happened in Melbourne was a hugely sad, 𒐪unfortunate set of circumstances on a number of levels,” he explained.

“I’ve been asked of late what my toughest event of the🐼 yea💟r was and by far it was Melbourne.

“But overall, I couldn’t have got through this year without the team of people I have immediately around me at the FIA and the support I received there, our partners 🌜at F1 group and how everyone chased down to all the operational guys, they have all supported and assisted me.

“Importantly, there are 20 driverꦓs driving cars and 10𒉰 teams, that all of them have embraced, supported and assisted me and without everyone I couldn’t have got through this year. That’s the simple part.”