Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff admits Abu Dhabi 2021 scandal had huge benefits

Max Verstappen consoles Lewis Hamilton after Abu Dhabi 2021, with a Toto Wolff thumbs up inset — Photo: © IMAGO

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Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff admits Abu Dhabi 2021 scandal had huge benefits

Mercedes' F1 domination ended in one of the most controversial races ever

Dan Ripley Global Editor

Professional F1 journalist and analyst

Wednesday 22 October 2025 20:29

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has claimed that the finale to the 2021 season that cost his driver Lewis Hamilton a record world championship was excellent for F1.

Hamilton was just one lap away from winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix four years ago when a controversial call under the safety car enabled Max Verstappen on brand new tyres to easily pass him at the Yas Marina circuit to pick up his first of four world titles.

The controversy was unprecedented causing major headlines throughout the world, but despite heavy protests the result stood and it left Hamilton unable to break Michael Schumacher's record of seven drivers' championships.

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Mercedes picked up a consolation prize of winning the constructors' championship in the same evening but after a downturn in form neither Wolff's team or Hamilton have even gone close to winning another championship since.

Verstappen's win ended Mercedes' domination of F1, with the team having won both titles in the sport between 2014 and 2020.

Wolff was furious with the decision at the time, and even during the final lap could be heard berating the race director Michael Masi over their controversial decision to allow a selected amount of lapped runners to unlap themselves under the safety car with a lap to go - while also calling in the safety car on the same lap. A move previously not seen in the sport.

Lewis Hamilton losing helped F1 grow

However, Wolff now admits that the uproar over the Abu Dhabi 2021 race has been crucial for F1's brand growth and that the sport is better off for it.

“The years with the Verstappen and Hamilton competition were very interesting,' Wolff told Joe Pompliano. [It was a] Great rivalry, polarised, ended up in Abu Dhabi 2021 which created so much media attention, in a way, also positiveness around our [F1] brand. Because before we were the huge German brand that crushed everybody. And suddenly we were not.

“Younger drivers were coming in, good personalities, great racing. Covid hit. People were at home, Drive to Survive, dropped.

“Younger audiences connected with their parents and grandparents around Formula 1, and we've grown since then, continued to grow. But we have to be always wary because fundamentally, we need to deliver credible and good sport. And if that goes, I think the rest of the other KPIs are going to perform.”

Mercedes these days now have George Russell and Kimi Antonelli behind the wheel, the latter replacing the Ferrari bound Lewis Hamilton at the start of this year.

Russell has grabbed two wins this season and will be back in action at this weekend's Mexican Grand Prix as the team look to bounce back from a disappointing sixth and 13th place finish at Austin, Texas at the US Grand Prix.