The last moments of the 2021 season finale stand to be one of the most controversial races ending in F1. While Max Verstappen was crowned as the 2021 F1 world champion, the last-minute debacle potentially cost Lewis Hamilton his record 8th title. There has been a lot of heat between FIA and Mercedes after the incident.

Notably, race director Masi has been under fire following the controversy. While Red Bull thinks this was a fair decision, many believe Masi went against his own precedent set during the 2020 Eifel GP. He is accused of deliberately making the final race spectacle worthy and not fair. Lewis Hamilton also missed the 2021 FIA prize-giving gala held in Paris as a sign of protest.

More recently, UK’s Labour Party member Lord Peter Hain labeled the Abu Dhabi GP as “rigged”. He is of the opinion that Hamilton was robbed from his 8th F1 title.

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The Mercedes luminary has dominated the turbo-hybrid era like no other driver. He has won six out of the last eight championships. He looked good to secure his record title before the dramatic turn of events pushed him out of contention. After the Dutchman took the lead, Hamilton fumed over his team radio that the race had been “manipulated”.

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However, the Briton was widely lauded for his performance this season. As reported by Express UK, Hain took a bold stance in favor of Hamilton. He believes the F1 star was a victim of a rigged race. “As a lifelong Formula 1 fan, I thought it was a perverted outcome”

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“The finish was effectively rigged by the stewards in order to produce to a dramatic finale for the theatre rather than a racing outcome,” said the 71-year-old politician.

“I think it has left a sour taste unless you are a die-hard Verstappen fan, but even many of them have admitted that it has left an unpleasant taste in their mouth,” he added.

FIA needs to look itself in the heart

Now the heat seems to settle down between the two F1 rivals. But there is a lot of bad blood between the FIA and the Mercedes team. Hain made a mention of that as well. He believes that the regulatory body should have a deeper investigation into the disarray and make sure it never gets repeated.

“I thought Lewis behaved with enormous dignity afterward, going to the Red Bull pits to congratulate them, but he must feel absolutely gutted and that the rules are rigged against him,” said the Briton as reported by Express.

“The FIA is the regulatory body, it can’t afford to have Formula 1 tarnished in this way. The FIA needs to have a heart to heart about all this and make sure it isn’t repeated,” concluded Peter Gerald Hain.

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The season has left us with a unique piece of racing history. Two drivers with utmost resilience and skills battled it out for the title. With much speculation over Hamilton’s return, we are still not sure if there will be another chapter to this rivalry. But the fans are surely rooting for more intense F1 seasons in the future, much like this one.