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Former F1 Champion Picks Sides as Abu Dhabi Controversy Reignites – “Lewis Hamilton Can’t Complain…”

Published 02/13/2022, 1:23 PM EST

The 1978 Formula 1 world champion Mario Andretti shared his thoughts on the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The last race of the last year has been pretty controversial. Max Verstappen sped past Lewis Hamilton to pick up his maiden championship. On the other hand, Lewis failed to pick up his eighth and break Michael Schumacher’s record.

In an interview with Planet F1, Mario shared his take on the incident. Talking about the Yas Marina Circuit race, Andretti conveyed, “You can never predict what will happen during a race. no one knew that Latifi would crash, so you have to be ready for these eventualities; sometimes you act correctly, other times you wish you had done things differently. But that’s nothing different from what happened before in the sport.”

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“I think it was all right, and Verstappen earned what he got. In his last lap maneuver, Lewis left the door open. I think he underestimated how close Max was in his mirrors, so Lewis can’t complain and everything happened in the correct way, in my opinion, considering the circumstances.”, Andretti further stated.

“It’s Broken Me and Built Me” – Lewis Hamilton Puts Into Words the Turmoils of F1

What followed after Lewis Hamilton lost to Max?

Regarding the Yas Marina race, Lewis was unhappy and criticized the race direction. Soon after the race, F1 Race Director Michael Masi was put under pressure. Team Mercedes presented many appeals to FIA immediately. The whole world got divided into two parts. One supporting Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes calling the race end to be unfair. However, the other half supported Max, FIA, and the race director.

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We appealed in the interest of sporting fairness, and we have since been in a constructive dialogue with the FIA and Formula 1 to create clarity for the future, so that all competitors know the rules under which they are racing, and how they will be enforced. pic.twitter.com/SCdNuFPwIb
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) December 16, 2021

Apart from the Abu Dhabi race, the former Italian-American driver criticized some other systems. The veteran wasn’t quite a fan of the team management talking with the race director about the race penalties over the whole season.

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WATCH THIS STORY: https://www.essentiallysports.com/stories/news-f1-to-move-away-from-knee-gesture-ceremony-in-2022

What did you think of the Abu Dhabi Last Lap Controversy? Did Michael Masi make the right call by letting the lapped cars go and also calling in the safety can in the same lap? Let us know in the comments below?

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Written by:

Sabyasachi Biswas is an F1 writer at Essentially Sports. He has completed his Master's in Mass Communication and Journalism from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. Sabyasachi is an ardent Red Bull and Max Verstappen fan and has been following the sport for over a decade now.

Former F1 Champion Picks Sides as Abu Dhabi Controversy Reignites – “Lewis Hamilton Can’t Complain…”

What followed after Lewis Hamilton lost to Max?

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