Formula One bosses have finally confirmed Lewis Hamilton WAS robbed of last year’s world championship.
A long-awaited report into the controversy in Abu Dhabi said that race director Michael Masi, who lost his job in the wake of the dramatic conclusion to the 2021 season, had acted in “good faith” and that the results from the race and the championship are “valid, final and cannot now be changed.” But it did accept that Masi had “called the safety car back into the pit lane without it having completed an additional lap as required by the Formula 1 Sporting Regulations.”
Had the safety car done so, Hamilton would have won a record-breaking eighth world title - not Max Verstappen. But the FIA cited “human error” as a factor in the incorrect application of the rules.
Over three months since that dramatic day, the sport’s governing body finally published its findings. And it highlighted confusion over the safety car rules and a feeling that a race should ideally end under green flag conditions as major contributory factors to the injustice.
But it said: “The results of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the FIA Formula One World Championship are valued, final and cannot now be changed.” In the build-up to this weekend's F1 season opener in Bahrain, Verstappen had little time for the suggestion that he has a point to prove given the controversial manner of his title triumph.
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"No,” he snapped. "I had the most wins, the most poles and most laps led. People forget that. They only look at Abu Dhabi apparently. But we have more races than only Abu Dhabi in the season."
And when asked whether he expected a more aggressive battle with Hamilton following the Briton's devastated reaction to his last-lap defeat, Verstappen replied: “You’re asking the wrong person. I guess you should ask Lewis that.”
