RED BULL team boss Christian Horner accused Mercedes of “f***ing up” on the day Lewis Hamilton lost the World Championship in 2021.
The infamous 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was when the British racing driver lost the F1 world title to Max Verstappen.
Christian Horner accused Mercedes of ‘f***ing up’ with Lewis Hamilton at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Max Verstappen snubbed the victory at Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Verstappen on the same day won the World Championship title
Hamilton was unable to secure his eighth F1 title
Tuesday 12th December marked the second anniversary of the 2021 season finale which saw Hamilton dethroned from his running streak of F1 World Drivers Championship wins.
He had won the highest class of motor racing four years in a row before he lost it to Dutch driver Verstappen in a controversial decision.
FIA race director Michael Masi did not enforce the Safety Car rules correctly which led to a one-lap shootout for the title.
Hamilton who was leading the whole race was set to secure his eighth World Championship but was snubbed of the title at the last point.
Verstappen overtook the Brit at the Turn 5 hairpin to take the race victory along with the F1 title.
And it was found the Dutchman had pitted for fresh soft tyres ahead of the restart while Hamilton was left exposed on old hard tyres.
Horner accused Mercedes of making a strategic error with their driver.
He told Sky‘s A League Of Their Own “I have absolutely no idea” why the race is so well-known.
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“Mercedes f***ed up. They left poor Lewis out there on tyres that had done pretty much most of the race and we’d pitted with Max, so he was on a fresh set of tyres. Max made the move”, Horner added.
Horner revealed Verstappen never planned to complete the decisive pass at the hairpin but aimed to launch a move up the inside as he struggled with a cramp in his left leg.
He said: “The interesting thing is where Max passed him – it caught Lewis completely by surprise.
“After the race, Max told us he didn’t intend to overtake him there but he got cramp behind the Safety Car and he couldn’t feel his left foot properly, so he thought: ‘Oh, f*** it, I’m going for it anyway.
“And then, when they were going down the straight, he was trying to wake his left foot up to hit the brakes for the next chicane.”
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