First off,

Michael IS trying to protect his son. That's what fathers do. Just because his kid is a race car driver doesn't remove him from being a dad. I can't fault Michael one bit for what he said on TV right after TK's crash. While he didn't come out and blame his son, he wasn't exactly overflowing in exonerating Marco from blame.

The absolute wrong place/venue to give your kid a kick in the butt is through the media. Who really knows what goes on behind closed doors. For all we know Michael could be ripping him a new backside privately but backing him publicly. To me, that's the correct way to handle the situation.