Karun Chandhok Highlights Attempts From Red Bull and Mercedes to Sway Media Opinion After Abu Dhabi ‘21

The 2021 Abu Dhabi GP remains one of the most contentious events in F1 history. The controversial conclusion to the intense championship battle between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen at the Yas Marina Circuit left the fanbase divided, with even experts unsure of which side was in the right. Sky Sports F1 pundit Karun Chandhok reflected on the event, noting how both Red Bull and Mercedes worked hard to influence media opinion in their favor.

In an Ask Me Anything session on the F1 subreddit, Chandhok responded to a user’s question about the most challenging event he has covered as a journalist. He highlighted how the entire 2021 season was a rollercoaster, citing Hamilton and Verstappen’s collision at Silverstone and several other incidents leading up to the dramatic Abu Dhabi finale.

He deemed the Abu Dhabi race as “arguably the most controversial race” in recent F1 history. The Indian former driver stated,

“It was clearly a weekend and a season where there was so much pressure from the paddock and you had all these people from within the Red Bull and the Mercedes camps telling you things, trying to sort of get you to sway your opinion.”

Amidst this backdrop, Chandhok noted that the Abu Dhabi race of 2021 was particularly challenging to “break down” as a journalist. The sensitivity surrounding the event is evident, as it continues to upset people nearly three years after it occurred.

The situation appeared quite straightforward during the night race at Yas Marina. Hamilton had taken the lead from Verstappen and was steadily extending his advantage while employing a one-stop strategy. Verstappen’s hopes seemed lost after pitting for a second time for fresher hard tires on lap 36, until the race was dramatically turned upside down by a late safety car.

The safety car chaos that earned Verstappen his maiden title

With five laps remaining and a full safety car out, Verstappen pitted from second to pit for soft tires while Hamilton stayed out on his old hard rubber. This put him at a big disadvantage if the race restarted. There was a lot of uncertainty on whether that would happen as the laps were running out and there were multiple lapped cars between the leaders.

The race director Michael Masi only let a few cars between Hamilton and Verstappen unlap themselves on the penultimate lap of the Grand Prix. The FIA later admitted that this was a “human error” on Masi’s part as the complete safety car restart procedure was not followed.

Eventually, it left Verstappen and Hamilton all by themselves in a one-lap shootout with the former overtaking the seven-time world champion to win his maiden World Championship in dramatic circumstances.

Masi was fired after after the 2021 season as the FIA officially investigated the matter.

However, they did not overturn the race result and Verstappen kept his title, much to the heartbreak of Hamilton. Even Mercedes did not aggressively push Hamilton’s case as many experts and fans still believe that they should have.