Lewis Hamilton has spoken out about the events surrounding the 2021 Formula One season finale in Abu Dhabi, saying that nothing like this should ever happen again
Lewis Hamilton looked fresh and refreshed at the Mercedes launch ahead of the 2022 Formula One season. The record-breaking world champion was in good spirits on Friday, first on the big stage and later during his online media round, which was attended by almost 100 journalists from all over the world.
However, the pain of losing the world championship title at the 2021 season finale in Abu Dhabi – and especially the circumstances in the final laps of the race – still runs deep. “No, absolutely not,” Hamilton replied when asked if he had since rewatched the race.
“It’s been replaying in my head a lot in the weeks since,” the Briton gives an insight into his mental life. He reveals that he barely remembers what happened on that Sunday immediately after the race ended and he lost the world championship title.
Hamilton welcomes FIA measures
“I don’t remember what I said to Max [Verstappen] [after the race]. It’s all a bit of a blur after that,” reported Hamilton, who now seems to have at least partially come to terms with the situation. “I want to look forward,” stresses the Mercedes driver.
During the winter, Hamilton had completely withdrawn from the public eye for a while, and there was even speculation that the record world champion would retire. The fact that he is now back and wants to look ahead, however, does not mean that he has left Abu Dhabi 2021 completely behind him.
“We can’t change the past and nothing will ever change how I felt at that time and how I feel about the situation. But it’s good that the FIA is doing something now to make sure things improve,” Hamilton explained.
The background to this is the planned measures by the motorsport world governing body announced this week by the new FIA president Mohammed bin Sulayem. According to Hamilton, these are a chance “to make sure that this never happens to anyone in this sport again. “
Hamilton: Trust needs to be rebuilt
“But we need to keep a close eye on this to make sure that these changes actually happen and that the rules are applied fairly, accurately and consistently,” Hamilton takes the FIA to task. He believes words must now be followed by action.
“Trust can be lost in the blink of an eye. But it takes a long time to build trust,” explains Hamilton, for whom the announced measures are “a step” – but nothing more. “We also need to see action, and I think that will take some time,” Hamilton said.
Incidentally, he had not yet seen the FIA’s full investigation report. “I don’t think it’s been published yet. But I’m excited to see the results of the investigation. Hopefully everyone will be able to see it to understand everything better,” Hamilton said.
Exciting: Incidentally, neither Hamilton nor team boss Toto Wolff mention the name Michael Masi, who played a central role in the Abu Dhabi race and was relieved of his job as race director as part of the measures, even once in their media rounds.
Masi out: What role did Mercedes play?
For many Formula 1 fans, it stands to reason that Mercedes was the driving force behind Masi’s exit as race director. Wolff denies this, but ‘Sky’ pundit Ralf Schumacher can “already imagine that the pressure [from Mercedes on the FIA] was very high.”
He is “of course not exactly aware” of what went on behind the scenes. But he recalls that Mercedes “lost a lot” in Abu Dhabi. “I think it’s a bit of a shame because I thought Michael Masi was a very good race director,” Schumacher judged.
“I think it’s not so easy to assert yourself against all these team bosses [and] against these interests, to make decisions. Maybe it would have been possible to go this new way with him, but obviously the rifts were too [big],” the expert suspects.
His Sky colleague Timo Glock also believes that there was “a lot of politics in the background” when Masi was removed. “In my eyes [it was] clear that there has to be a reaction from Mercedes […] that goes in that direction,” said Glock, for whom it was not necessarily a “logical decision. “
Hamilton wants to look ahead
“I think you could hear it a little bit over the winter that his chair was being cut,” he explains, adding, “He tried to do his job as well as he could. I always found him very, very pleasant as a race director, [he] was also always accessible to the press.”
“[He] was always open and you could always ask him if something was wrong. And I think that was always seen by the drivers as well,” said Glock, who explained that Masi “made a little mistake” in Abu Dhabi that ultimately cost him his job as race director.
Lewis Hamilton, incidentally, is not particularly keen to talk about these issues any longer. “It’s an area I’m not really concentrating on at the moment,” he stresses. For him, it’s all about being the best Lewis Hamilton of all time in 2022.
Nevertheless, he says it is important to continue to work through what happened in Abu Dhabi and not to forget. Philosophically, he explains: “We have to understand where we were in order to be able to move forward.