Mercedes Formula 1 CEO and team principal Toto Wolff has reflected on the controversial 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which resulted in Max Verstappen claiming his first championship victory over Lewis Hamilton.
Taking aim at the race director at the time, Michael Masi, Wolff recounted the situation while joining his wife, F1 Academy managing director Susie Wolff, at an event to promote her book, Driven.
“I have not experienced the loss of control of a situation since I was a child,” the Mercedes team chief explained. “There is one lunatic who can basically destroy the record of the greatest champion of all time.”
Susie added: “It was disbelief. That one person’s decision to interpret the rules, in a way that they had never been interpreted before, could have caused such an outcome. It sat so heavily with me for a long time afterwards.”
The 2021 F1 title fight went to a season-ending decider in Abu Dhabi after a year-long battle between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. In the closing laps, the safety car was deployed when Williams driver Nicholas Latifi crashed. Hamilton led Verstappen behind the safety car and, with the laps running out, it appeared the race - and the championship - would finish under the safety car.
But in order to have the race finish under a green flag, Masi instructed only the lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to unlap themselves, which was seen as being inconsistent with usual race procedures. Verstappen, who was on fresher tyres than the seven-time champion, was able to make the overtake on the final lap to secure his first drivers' title.
It has since become one of the most contentious moments in modern F1 history. Masi was later replaced in the role of race director. The FIA confirmed "human error" was a factor in the title but that Masi acted in "good faith" and the race results are "valid".
"The process of identifying lapped cars has up until now been a manual one and human error led to the fact that not all cars were allowed to unlap themselves," the statement from the FIA read in March 2022.
"The report finds that the race director was acting in good faith and to the best of his knowledge given the difficult circumstances, particularly acknowledging the significant time constraints for decisions to be made and the immense pressure being applied by the teams.
"The results of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the FIA Formula One World Championship are valid, final and cannot now be changed."
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