Max Verstappen reveals what Mercedes’ Toto Wolff said in private text after F1 title win

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen analysed by Coulthard

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Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has revealed the text message he received from Mercedes boss Toto Wolff in the wake of his dramatic Formula One title win in Abu Dhabi. The Dutchman swept past Lewis Hamilton on the final lap of the race in Yas Marina after a controversial decision from the race director Michael Masi.

After the race, Wolff was left fuming and retreated to his Mercedes office, refusing to speak to any media as he began trawling through the information before lodging two protests with the FIA.

It was an agonising wait for Verstappen to be crowned before the stewards eventually dismissed both protests and the Dutchman was officially announced as world champion.

“Toto sent me a text,” began Verstappen. “Congratulations on the season and that I deserve to win it.

“So that was very nice of him, of course. Emotions run very high to that last lap from both teams. It is what it is. We will see.”

With five laps remaining of the winner-takes-all race between Hamilton and Verstappen, Nicolas Latifi crashed into the wall, bringing out a late safety car.

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As per rules, the Red Bull driver dove into the pits to put on a fresh pair of soft tyres to give him the best chance of catching Hamilton.

At this point under safety car conditions, lapped cars are normally allowed to pass the leaders and un-lap themselves so they don’t directly interfere with the leading cars, or no cars are allowed to un-lap themselves at all.

Yet, Masi made the decision to allow some cars, specifically the ones sitting directly between Hamilton and Verstappen, to un-lap themselves, but didn’t give the entire field enough time to do the same before the race restarted for a last-lap dash to the finish line.

The restart at this point was always going to favour Verstappen on fresher tyres and he overtook Hamilton, who had decided not to pit, and went on to win the race, and therefore the title.

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Mercedes and Wolff were left fuming as the magnitude of what happened sunk in for the team, with Hamilton absent during the FIA’s post-race press conference.

After the FIA dismissed the team’s protest, Mercedes then gave notice for their intent to appeal, with a cut-off of Thursday to decide to take things further.

Speaking after the race, Hamilton said: “Firstly congratulations to Max and to his team. I think we did an amazing job this year. My team, everyone back at the factory, have worked so hard this whole year, it’s been the most difficult of seasons.

“I’m so proud of them and I’m so grateful to be a part of the journey with them. This last part of the season we gave it absolutely everything and never gave up, that’s the most important thing.

“I have been feeling good and great in the car this past couple of months, particularly at the end.

“If I’m honest we were still in the pandemic and I just really wish everyone to stay safe and have a good Christmas with all their families and we’ll see about next year.”

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