More than two years have passed since the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP, but Toto Wolff is still not ready to forgive Michael Masi for the controversial end to the race, in which Lewis Hamilton missed out on an eighth world title.
The final round of the 2021 season in Abu Dhabi is infamous as one of the most controversial in Formula 1 history. Race director Michael Masi’s decision to allow the drivers between Verstappen and Hamilton to un-lap themselves led to a chaotic end for the Mercedes driver.
Later, the FIA admitted that Masi had not correctly applied the rules: “The race director called the safety car back to the pit lane without completing an additional lap as required by the Formula 1 Sporting Regulations. Up to this point, identifying lapped cars had been a manual process, and human error resulted in not all cars being allowed to un-lap.”
The FIA later reprimanded Michael Masi, but the decision could not be reversed, and Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has not forgotten this, as he noted at motorsport.com.
“But I don’t want to waste a minute thinking about the reasons why it happened because that would give Masi too much credit. He’s just an idiot who made the wrong decision,” Wolff said.