Lewis Hamilton says he nearly quit F1 after Abu Dhabi controversy cost him title

Sir Lewis Hamilton has revealed that he came very close to quitting Formula 1 following the controversial end to last year’s championship.

After a long and bitter title race with Max Verstappen, Hamilton looked set to claim a record-breaking eighth world championship at the final grand prix of the season at Abu Dhabi.

However, with just a handful of laps remaining, the safety car was deployed and upon the restart then-race director Michael Masi incorrectly and controversially allowed only the lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to pass through, thus enabling the Red Bull driver, who was on fresh tyres, to easily pass the Mercedes man on the last lap and win the title.

The rules at the time clearly stipulated that it should have been every lapped car or none at all, and that the race should not have restarted, but despite Mercedes launching an appeal the results stood although the backlash to the incident remains just as strong now as it was in December.

As the events unfolded, Hamilton said on his team radio that the race had been ‘manipulated’, but the 37-year-old has remained very quiet on the matter since then, with some speculating over the winter that the Brit was considering walking away from the sport.

And now, in an interview with Vanity Fair, Hamilton has admitted that he really did nearly retire, saying: ‘I, for sure, considered whether I wanted to continue.

‘I knew what had happened. I knew what decisions had been made and why. Yes, I knew something wasn’t right.

Hamilton of course returned to the grid for the 2022 season, but for the first time in a decade has been unable to mount a title challenge due to the poor performance of his Mercedes W13.

As for Masi, the Australian was removed from his position of race director ahead of the new season, with Abu Dhabi the last in a long line of controversial incidents he had been involved in.

In July, it was announced that he had left the FIA for good and Masi would later reveal that he and his family had received ‘racist, abusive and vile’ abuse and death threats following the finale.

However, the controversies do not end there, as it was also recently reported that Masi signed a non-disclosure agreement with the FIA never to discuss the race, which has led to further unproven suspicion that officials had manipulated the race in Verstappen’s favour and are now covering their tracks.

Nevertheless, Hamilton was gracious in defeat at the Yas Marina circuit, shaking Verstappen’s hand and congratulating him on the win before being consoled by his father, Anthony.

‘He embraced me, and I think he was like, “I want you to know how proud I am of you”,’ Hamilton added.

‘Having your father embrace you in that way is one of the most profound things ever. Especially as you’ve grown up not many times having that.’

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