There’s no way they could have tricked me like that! Hamilton returns to the Abu Dhabi GP and makes another statement

Last year’s battle for the championship was one of the best Formula 1 has ever offered. From a pure spectator perspective, that is. Last season was one of considerable controversy, not excluding the grand finale in Abu Dhabi. And it was on the last race of the 2021 season that Lewis Hamilton returned to make another statement.

It was one of the most controversial moments in F1 history, a truly Hollywood finale that eventually saw Max Verstappen take the title. So to recap, just before the end of the Abu Dhabi VC, Williams driver Nicholas Latifi crashed.

As a result of the crash, the safety car came out onto the track, and according to the classic procedure, race director Michael Masi should have let everyone who was 1 lap behind the race leader go ahead of the safety car to complete that one lap and get back on the safety car in the correct order.

However, this procedure would time out in such a way that the drivers would finish the race behind the safety car. So Masi decided that only those drivers between Hamilton and Verstappen would be able to pass the safety car. In the former case, it should be added, the title would have gone to the British driver.

However, the drivers that Masi allowed to make up their one lap deficit were not able to complete that one lap to line up back behind the safety car and join the rest of the field in the correct order.

The last lap was therefore raceable, but Masi’s decision greatly affected the title fight, although Verstappen probably deserved it more given the way the season was going. Indeed, the Red Bull driver on the red set of tyres had no problem getting ahead of Hamilton and winning not only the Abu Dhabi VC, but the entire championship.

Hamilton’s statement

“Gradually you can see how things are starting to develop and eventually my worst fears have come true. I told myself that there was no way I could be cheated like this. It’s not possible. It’s not going to happen. It certainly won’t,” Hamilton said in an interview with Vanity Fair.

“I don’t know if I can really put into words the feeling I had. I remember just sitting there in disbelief and realizing I had to unbuckle my seatbelt, I had to get out of there, I had to get out of there, I had to find the strength,” he added.

“And it was one of the hardest moments I’ve had in a long time. I knew what had happened. I knew what decisions were made and why. Yes, I knew something was wrong,” Hamilton sees it clearly.

The aftermath of the Abu Dhabi Grand Final

After the event, the seven-time world champion completely shut himself off from social media and there was strong speculation about whether he would decide to end his career.

His team was also devastated despite the celebrations of winning the constructors’ title and made almost no statements regarding Hamilton. The FIA then released a statement from its investigation concluding that the fate of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was decided by human error.

Furthermore, the new FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem then removed Masi from his position. As of this year’s edition, we thus have two race directors, Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas.

Hamilton continues to pursue his career as a Formula 1 driver, stating in a recent statement that the departure of legend Sebastian Vettel does not inspire him to end his career, on the contrary, he wants to continue racing in F1.

Sources