Lewis Hamilton Max Verstappen Abu Dhabi incident does not mean F1 is corrupt - Zak Brown

Hamilton, Verstappen, Abu Dhabi — Photo: © LAT Images

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Hamilton Verstappen Abu Dhabi incident does not mean F1 is corrupt - Brown

F1 faced a backlash from Hamilton fans after last year's season-deciding race

Sam Hall

Friday 21 January 2022 19:00

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McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown does not believe F1 "is corrupt" despite some using last year's championship-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as evidence to the contrary.

Lewis Hamilton missed out on a record-breaking eighth title in a last-lap shootout against Max Verstappen at the Yas Marina circuit in December after a questionable safety car restart.

The Mercedes driver is yet to confirm he will feature on the grid this year despite the team announcing the launch of its W13 on February 18.

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Given a number of seemingly inconsistent decisions across the season,with the Abu Dhabi incident chief amongst them, F1 has faced calls of corruption from pockets of fans.

Speaking in a media briefing, Brown defended the sport, stating: “I don’t think this was a malicious decision. So for those that might have a view that the sport’s corrupt etcetera, I don’t agree with that.

“Do I think potentially a different decision could have been made? Yes, probably. I want to wait to see what the FIA comes out with, but I don’t think it was malicious, and therefore I don’t think it’s corrupt.

“We’ve all seen in sport before referees make decisions that people disagree with. Sometimes they’re right, sometimes they’re wrong.

“It gets pretty exciting and then the season starts and it soon becomes a thing that you never forget about, but it’s a thing of the past.”

Although confident that Hamilton will sit alongside George Russell at Mercedes when the season begins, Brown conceded the FIA must properly 'take action' to ensure a repeat of the season-ending events in the future.

“With all controversies in sport, in time, as soon as the next season starts the wounds start to heal," added Brown.

“I do think the FIA need to come out with a, ‘Here’s what happened, here’s why we think it happened, here’s what was right, here’s what was wrong’, whatever they’re going to come out with in the report, and then show they’ve taken action to make sure it doesn’t happen again."