Michael Masi’s controversial decisions on the final lap of the 2021 season finale in Abu Dhabi struck a dagger through the hearts of Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes. Although almost three years have passed since the incident, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has not forgiven Masi and launched a brutal verbal attack on him earlier this week.
Masi made a “human error” on the final lap of that race in Abu Dhabi that effectively took Hamilton’s eighth world championship away from him. As a result, Max Verstappen became world champion for the first time that evening.
Meanwhile, what should have been a glorious occasion for the F1 community on that day, it got marred by Masi’s controversial decision-making. As per a report published by Speedcafe, Wolff recently accused Masi of making the entire race about himself.
Wolff said, “He (Masi) is a totally unimportant person. He lives on the other side of the world and nobody is interested in him. He really was an utter pathological egomaniac”.
Masi lost his job after the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP, after months of public outrage and an investigation launched by the FIA. However, the result of the race did not change. Hamilton’s gut-wrenching loss stood, and the mistake by Masi was downplayed down to ‘human error’.
Toto Wolff believes Lewis Hamilton can win eighth title
Lewis Hamilton’s life in F1 was never the same following the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP. Mercedes didn’t deal with the ground-effect regulation changes of 2022 very well.
As a result, the Brackley-based outfit slipped down the pecking order, and Hamilton remains winless. The last race he won was in 2021, and his frustration has led to him deciding on a future away from Mercedes.
Ahead of the 2024 season, Hamilton revealed that he will join Ferrari next campaign. Success has eluded the Maranello-based camp for far too long. And Hamilton will be hoping to end it by winning the title himself.
As per SpeedWeek, Wolff has faith in Hamilton even though the Briton won’t be a part of the Silver Arrows in a few months time. The Austrian boss is sure that the seven-time world champion will add to his tally sometime in the future before retiring.
Although Ferrari is still far behind Red Bull in terms of performance, they have made some big strides. In Australia two weeks ago, while Mercedes suffered a double DNF, Ferrari had a race-winning pace, which Carlos Sainz used to his advantage. Interestingly, Sainz is the driver Hamilton will replace in Ferrari next year.
