Abu Dhabi GP 2021: Lewis Hamilton Robbed Of Record-Breaking Eighth World Championship

Sir Lewis Hamilton was minutes away from an eighth Formula One Driver's Championship, until the FIA tweaked the rules to enable Max Verstappen to win his maiden title.

Having overtaken Verstappen off the line, taking the lead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the first corner, the Brit controlled the entire race in commanding fashion. Until the Race Director, Michael Masi, got involved, that is.

Nicholas Latifi put his Williams into the wall with five laps remaining and, with Hamilton ten seconds clear of Verstappen, the Safety Car was called out.

Now, there had already been a Virtual Safety Car earlier in the race when Kimi Raikkonen's final Formula One race ended prematurely, with the Finn forced into retiring his Alfa Romeo for the last time.

Having matched Verstappen's stop for the hard tyre, Mercedes made the decision to leave Lewis out and, given Pirelli said that the hard tyre would run comfortably for 50 laps, there was no reason to question their decision.

Hamilton got on the radio to state his fears of Verstappen being able to hunt him down on a new set, but the Black Arrows advised that a gap of 0.8 seconds a lap was needed for the Dutchman to be a threat and they apply didn't see that happening. Rather unsurprisingly, they were spot on.

The full safety car, however, posed a much bigger problem. A VSC does not allow drivers to close up right behind the car in front. A full Safety Car, does. What happened next is where Mr. Masi, his stewards and the FIA have some explaining to do. A LOT, in fact.

F1 regulations state that any lapped cars can unlap themselves under the Safety Car and that - this is important - one lap later, the SC will go into the pits.

On lap 56, Masi said no lapped cars would be able to do this. Mercedes don't pit Lewis, Red Bull do pit Max, he's on fresh softs while Lewis is stuck on old hards. Incredibly, footage has emerged of Red Bull (proposedly) being told by Mr. Masi that the lapped cars would in fact be able to unlap themselves. This is proposed to have happened on lap 56, one lap earlier than the rest of the grid - including Mercedes - heard this message on lap 57.

Given that the rulebook says that the Safety Car will come in at the end of the following lap, which would have been at the chequered flag and Hamilton therefore becoming World Champion yet again, Toto Wolff's team did not pit Hamilton.

But then, and this is the most controversial moment, Masi changed his mind and DID allow lapped drivers to get a move on, but only five of the eight. Those five were all that stood between Verstappen's front wing and Hamilton's rear. Why did Masi change his mind? Why only those five cars? The answer, for me at least, is simple: to allow Max one more chance of the title.

Both he and Hamilton needed to outscore eachother to become Champion and Masi wanted the race to finish "green" - aka not racing under any form of Safety Car.

What makes my mind spin more than anything is that this change of heart came shortly after Red Bull's Team Principal, Christian Horner, got on the radio to Masi and said, "Michael, we only need one racing lap."

Why does he just need one lap? So Max can target a sitting duck. Who is 'we'?. That is the BIG question. Surely it can't include Masi, or could it? After all, Netflix's 'Drive To Survive' show has attracted millions of new fans all over the world because they love to see over-the-top drama. In my opinion, Masi valued that drama and the spectacle of a one-lap shootout for the Championship (which was almost completely one-sided).

Max overtook Lewis with an impressive dive down the inside and, although Lewis slipstreamed not long after, he simply did have the grip because of his ancient hard tyres. Lewis got on the radio to his team to say, "This is getting manipulated, man!" And he's not wrong.

There are many, many questions we could ask ourselves, but there is one truth: Masi chose to break/bend/mould the rules in this scenario for the very first time in history.

What's more, the fire extinguisher residue from Latifi's crash was still on the track in abundance. On the racing line no less. The track was not clear, the track was not safe, the regulations were not followed - all so they could engineer a Max victory.

I simply don't understand why he shared the intention of not letting the lapped drivers unlap themselves, but I do know the reason for only five of them then being allowed to do so. The whole narrative of this titanic season-long battle for the title was dwindling away before his very eyes, so he decided to save it by hanging Lewis out to dry. If he wanted a racing finish, why not red flag the session, let the FULL order get corrected and let the two pretenders fight it out on equal tyres from pretty much side my side at lights out 2.0?

It's beyond a joke.

One man who definitely agrees with me is now-Mercedes driver, George Russell who takes the reigns of Valtteri Bottas' as Hamilton's teammate.

He took to Twitter almost immediately to air his view on proceedings:

"THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!!!!

"Max is an absolutely fantastic driver who has had an incredible season and I have nothing but huge respect for him, but what just happened is absolutely unacceptable. I cannot believe what we’ve just seen."

McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo both shared extreme confusion about the events, in post-race interviews and team radio respectively. As did Aston Martin racer Lance Stroll, who simply asked: "What the f*ck?"

It's surprising to me to see that no other drivers are coming forward with questions of un-followed protocol. Are they scared of the FIA? There's no time for that. Now's the time to fight back.

And that is exactly what Toto Wolff's Mercedes team are doing. Despite filing two protests - one for Max overtaking under safety car and the second for the safety car protocol not being followed - and both being rejected by the stewards, the Black Arrows lodged an intent to appeal these decisions.

This could have gone all the way to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, had Mercedes wanted to go down that road, but Toto's team don't want to drag the sport they love through the mud.

Toto himself does not want to speak to Mr. Masi and Mercedes have stated that they "will hold the FIA accountable" for last Sunday's shock events.

Mercedes had already pulled the Formula E car and representatives from an awards ceremony, and it looks like relationships with governing bodies won't be improving any time soon.

Mercedes broke their silence by issuing the statement, among others, on social media on Thursday morning, but Sir Lewis Hamilton is yet to speak to any media since his post-race interview in Abu Dhabi.

This is extremely worrying for his millions of fans around the world, with many fearing he will hang up his steering wheel as his form of protest.

For me, though, this won't happen. Lewis and his family have suffered from injustice their whole lives and they have never backed down. In fact, they have rallied to become stronger from it in an instant.

I do believe that Lewis will return to the track next year. I have to believe it. The greatest Formula One racer of all time cannot end his career because of this. He will come back and show the world who's boss by winning his ninth Championship.

Yes, NINTH.