Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton were part of one of the fiercest title battles in F1 history in 2021, which the former narrowly won. However, it ended on a hugely controversial note with many people, including former F1 driver Johnny Herbert feeling that Hamilton was “robbed of” a win.
In an interview with Jason Stein for Cars and Culture, Herbert talks about the infamous 2021 Abu Dhabi GP, which handed Verstappen his first title win. When Stein asked Herbert if Hamilton was robbed, the Briton had no hesitation in insisting that he was. The 58-year-old acknowledged that Verstappen still feels ‘sensitive’ when someone brings up the topic of Hamilton getting robbed, but that is the reality according to him.
However, he emphasized the fact that Verstappen did nothing wrong. The Dutchman was on Hamilton’s toes like he was supposed to, and after race director Michael Masi messed up the ending of the race with a series of questionable calls, Verstappen took the opportunity at hand to pass Hamilton to win the race. Herbert sees nothing wrong with that and doesn’t understand why fans slam the Red Bull driver for what happened with Hamilton.
Max Verstappen didn’t have to give the title back to Lewis Hamilton
There was a lot of outrage following the aftermath of the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP, especially among Hamilton and Mercedes fans. They blamed Masi and the FIA for manipulating the results and demanded that the title be handed back to the rightful winner- Hamilton.
Herbert, however, doesn’t see where Max Verstappen and Red Bull went wrong. Therefore, Verstappen handing the title over to Hamilton for someone else’s mistake isn’t something he is obliged to do. Herbert, however, blames Masi for this. In his interview with Stein, the three-time Grand Prix winner states-
“Max did nothing wrong. You can’t blame Max in any way. Some people say, ‘Oh he should have given it back to Lewis or they should have reversed the finishing order. But you can’t do that.”
Verstappen and Hamilton have moved on from Abu Dhabi incident
The 2021 Abu Dhabi GP’s climax is still one of the most talked about topics in F1 today, but Verstappen, Hamilton and their respective teams insist they have moved on. Red Bull and Verstappen don’t see anything wrong with what happened, whereas Mercedes have come to terms with what unfolded.
Hamilton and Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff both admitted that the defeat hurt the team, because of how unjust it felt. However, they are all focused on the future, and are hell bent upon climbing back to the top of F1 once again.
