F1 champion makes Abu Dhabi 2021 penalty claim AGAINST Lewis Hamilton

Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton look on in a composite with an Abu Dhabi flag behind them — Photo: © IMAGO

Abu Dhabi 2021

F1 champion makes Abu Dhabi 2021 penalty claim AGAINST Lewis Hamilton

Abu Dhabi 2021 remains F1's most controversial moment

Sheona Mountford F1 Journalist

Motorsport journalist working in F1 since 2024.

Wednesday 17 December 2025 18:58

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An F1 champion made a bold claim about Lewis Hamilton's Abu Dhabi title loss in 2021, arguing he was lucky not to get a penalty.

Abu Dhabi 2021 will go down in F1 history as one of the sport's most controversial moments, as Hamilton and Max Verstappen entered the final race on equal points.

Then race director Michael Masi let some lapped cars overtake a late safety car but not others following Nicholas Latifi's crash, allowing Verstappen to put on fresh tyres behind Hamilton.

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Masi granted one more lap of racing which allowed Verstappen to overtake Hamilton for the race win, and thus claimed his first F1 title.

In the wake of the controversy, an FIA restructure saw Masi leave his position with the Australian regarded poorly by some, including Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff who branded him a lunatic.

Should Hamilton have won 2021 title sooner?

Speaking on the High Performance podcast however, 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve refused to sympathise with Hamilton and instead argued he should have won the title sooner.

“Actually, what you forget is that it’s the work of a whole season, it’s not just that one race. He [Lewis] should have won it before that race; that was the issue," he said.

“Max should never have been able to fight so hard at the end. But what everyone forgets is on lap one, Lewis cuts the chicane, steps on it, doesn’t even try to slow down and does not even get a penalty.

“That gives him the lead of the race. Without that, no lead of the race. With a penalty, then he’s just five seconds behind Max anyway.

“So we don’t even get to that point. So that’s where the issue started. You can’t just look at that moment where everything happened in chaos and happened quickly, where the team could have pitted Lewis, and they chose not to."

F1 Max Verstappen Lewis Hamilton Abu Dhabi 2021