The final stages of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where the battle for the Formula 1 world championship was decided, were a great object of analysis and debate at the end of last season.
After a late safety car period, necessitated by an accident involving Nicholas Latifi, the title went to Max Verstappen, who took it in after overtaking Lewis Hamilton on the final lap.
The result of that duel was discussed for a long time. In the end, the FIA issued a report concluding that then race director Michael Masi had misapplied two rules.
The investigation concluded that the Australian had acted “in good faith” within the limited time and resources available to him. One of the mistakes that was talked about at the time, not allowing three drivers with a lost lap to split, is the one that Christian Horner has now rescued.
The Red Bull Racing team boss came to Masi’s defense when his dismissal was announced. Half a year on, the Briton thinks the former F1 race director has become something of a scapegoat.
“Personally, I was very disappointed with the way the FIA treated Michael, because he did everything he could to manage the race under the pressure that was there,” he told The Cambridge Union .
“It was clear anyway that I was always going to be under pressure to resume that race. Nobody wanted to see a world championship decided under a safety car. You knew it was very likely that the race would resume.
However, Horner also acknowledges that Masi was not entirely without fault: “He made a mistake in not giving all the drivers who were down laps a chance to split. I think there were three cars at the back of the grid that had He had to keep his place and they didn’t get his lap back. That was the only mistake he made.”
“I found it very hard for him to be publicly ridiculed in such a way, the online harassment and hate that he faced without the federation really supporting him.”
“Last year there were a lot of decisions that we felt were against us, like the yellow flags in Qatar qualifying or the incident with Lewis at Silverstone. But I felt a lot for him, he should have had more support after that championship because he was in an incredibly difficult position.
Horner believes that everything that happened around the Abu Dhabi GP took some of the shine off Verstappen’s first world title. A wound that, in his opinion, he deserves without any doubt.
“If there hadn’t been an appeal and there hadn’t been so much talk about it after the event, I think it would have been a much less important issue. Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like if it had happened the other way around and Lewis Hamilton had won on the last lap. Would [Verstappen] have been the hero instead of the villain?
“The reality is that a championship is won over the course of a whole season, not just one race. And with the way Max drove last year and the performances he put in at times in what wasn’t the best car, I think he fully deserved that championship. These things happen from time to time.”
