Exactly a year ago, Lewis Hamilton could’ve been an eighth-time Formula 1 World Champion. But if you ask Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, then the Brit should’ve been one. It’s been a year now, but Wolff hasn’t buried that hatchet yet. And in his own words, probably, he never will.

How the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix panned out, and subsequently how the championship was decided, will always be a blot on the storied history of Formula 1. That being said, the scars left by that night in the desert on Wolff, Hamilton, and Mercedes will never go away, according to the Austrian boss.

Talking on the Beyond the Grid podcast, Wolff said, “Abu Dhabi 2021 is going to affect us for a long time, or forever maybe. Max is a deserving champion and so is Lewis. On that particular day, it was the same points and may the best man win and that wasn’t the case. It is sealed. The championship is done, sealed and we shouldn’t continue to drag on [about it].”

“Max is a double world champion. He is a deserving world champion. Mistakes were made, the FIA acknowledged it and we’ve got to move on.”

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How the entire 2021 season unfolded did take a massive toll on the relationship shared by both the drivers. And a testament to this is that even to this day, neither of them leaves an opportunity to take a swipe at the other. This time around, 2x Champion Max Verstappen was on the receiving end of some Lewis Hamilton shade.

Lewis Hamilton mocks Max Verstappen’s big ugly…

Max Verstappen definitely isn’t on Lewis Hamilton’s Christmas dinner party list. But you’d expect the duo to at least be civil in the media. After trading jabs on the racetrack in 2021, it would appear that the two also like going at each other off of it. This time it was the 7x Champion’s turn to throw some shade on the Dutch lion.

While speaking to Sky F1, the Brit mocked Verstappen’s choice of racing number. He said, “I think it’s more the the big ugly number one, as big as you could put it, on the car.”

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But he quickly recanted, “Nah I’m kidding, I’m not really fazed by any of these things as much as some people like to think.”

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Was the Max Verstappen-Lewis Hamilton rivalry just a one-off? Or will we see these two goliaths of motorsport battle it out again in 2023?