Mercedes fell victim to arguably F1’s biggest ever controversy at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in 2021 when a contentious call by ex-FIA race director Michael Masi saw Lewis Hamilton miss out on the title.
The unsavory ending of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix three years back is still fresh in Toto Wolff mind – yet, for Lewis Hamilton the highlight was embracing his father in the podium thereafter.
The final round on Formula one was held in Austria in this year with another Brit fighting wheel to wheel with Max Verstappen for the title of the Drivers’ champions. The final stages of the race boiling into frenzy after a last lap safety car moved the cars nearer to each other.
But, Race Control controversy arose when FIA race director Michael Masi permitted some lapped cars in between Hamilton and Verstappen to un-lap themselves which provided the final showdown of a one-lap shoot-out fight between the title contenders.
Masi’s decision was heavily tilted in the favour of the Dutchman who was on fresher tyres as the Red Bull star took advantage and overtook the seven-time champion to secure his first world championship and denied Hamilton a record-equalling eighth title.
Three years on from the shocking incident, Verstappen, 27, has already been crowned champion for the fourth year running ahead of the final race in Abu Dhabi this weekend. It will be 39-year-old Hamilton’s 246th and final race for Mercedes before joining Ferrari next year. And Wolff admitted on the High Performance Podcast that the infamous decision that still haunts Mercedes from three years ago – which he branded a “sporting tragedy” – remains part of him to this day.
“I felt angry, not depressed or sad, just angry that an individual was able to take away an eighth championship from the best driver in the world by a bad decision,” Wolff explained.
But you have to put it into context, there are dictators around the world and politicians that cause so much pain that it is in no way comparable to Lewis losing the eighth title or for us as a team.
The anger of that moment of a person… But even Lewis learned to manage his emotions very strongly and after a few days was in an okay space. It still goes with us because of the unfairness that happened on this particular day.”
While Hamilton has failed to break his title tie with Michael Schumacher, who both remain on seven titles, he’s opted to take a positive outlook on what happened in Abu Dhabi despite admitting that he was “robbed”.
“Was I robbed? Obviously,” Hamilton said in an interview with GQ Magazine earlier this year. “I mean, you know the story. But I think what was really beautiful in that moment, which I take away from it, was my dad was with me. And we’d gone through this huge roller coaster of life together, ups and downs.”
Hamilton famously hugged his father after being left devastated by the loss of the title by eight points and hugged Verstappen. He said there is need to be a decent role model for children who may be watching the aftermath of the race.
“And when it hurt the most that day he was there… The way he raised me was to always stand up keep your head up,” he continued. “And I of course went to hug Max, and not thinking about ‘oh this is going to be very bad,’ but at the same time was like, oh yeah, there’s somebody behind the lens.”
Certainly, this is one of the happiest memorable moments in life. And I think it really was. I felt it. Honestly, I was killing time trying to build a campaign and I really did not know how it was going to be perceived. I had not ‘like’ picturized it. But I was definitely conscious of: it is in those next fifty meters of the road when I walk that I may drop dead – or get up.