Lewis Hamilton had one ‘hand tied behind his back’ by Michael Masi – Mark Webber

Mercedes boss hopes ‘robbed’ Lewis Hamilton will continue racing

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FIA race director Michael Masi has been accused of handicapping Lewis Hamilton in the final lap of the controversial Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The final race of the 2021 season saw Hamilton and Max Verstappen level on points with a straight shoot-out between the pair for the title.

And it appeared to be only going one way with Hamilton dominating from lights out, stealing first place from Verstappen immediately.

Red Bull tried a number of tactics to bring Verstappen back into play, but Hamilton was making no mistakes and looked on course for a record-breaking eighth World Championship.

That all changed in the final laps during a safety car period after a controversial decision made by Masi.

Heading into the final lap, Masi seemingly didn’t want to end the season under safety car conditions and announced that the five lapped cars between the leaders would be allowed through before the race resumed.

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With Verstappen on fresh soft tyres and Hamilton on old hards, the British racing superstar needed a miracle to hold off his rival.

That never came though as Verstappen eventually made the move stick to the frustrations of Hamilton and Mercedes.

It proved to be a dramatic and heartbreaking end to what had been a terrific title battle between two of F1’s greatest ever drivers.

Masi has come under heavy criticism for his handling of the race and Webber is the latest to express his disappointment at how the championship was decided.

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“For the sport we were all disappointed it ended like that, it’s not how we wanted it to end,” Webber told Wide World of Sport.

“Both of them deserved to lift that trophy, but we did not want it to finish like that at all.

“We wanted a straight fight, a clean fight, and unfortunately there was one guy with his hand tied behind his back.

“Of course in hindsight they would all agree we could have done something different, what happened wasn’t the ideal scenario.”

Masi was a prominent figure on TV footage throughout the season with team bosses such as Christian Horner and Toto Wolff regularly reaching out to the race director to make demands or requests to review something in a race.

But that’s all set to change this season though with Ross Brawn confirming in the aftermath that amendments will be made to the discussions can have with the FIA race director.

“We will stop this contact next year,” Brawn said.

“The decision in the last lap is a highlight that cannot be topped. Unfortunately, the protest takes the shine from this final a bit.”

“It is not acceptable that the team bosses put Michael under such pressure during the race. Toto Wolff cannot demand that a safety car should not come, and Christian Horner cannot demand that the cars have to lap back. That is at the discretion of the race director.”

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