Adrian Newey insists Lewis Hamilton’s 2021 Abu Dhabi GP loss severely impacted Mercedes’ ‘psyche’

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen were equal on points heading into the 2021 Abu Dhabi race.

Adrian Newey insists Lewis Hamilton’s 2021 Abu Dhabi GP loss severely impacted Mercedes’ ‘psyche’

Lewis Hamilton and Adrian Newey (Via: Autoweek, X/Thanos876, screenshot)

2021 is the year that’s still remembered in the world of F1 for what went down during the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi. Lewis Hamilton was cruising during the latter stages when, all of a sudden, all hell broke loose and the Brit ended up losing the race as well as the driver’s championship.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was crowned the winner and to date, Mercedes feels dejected by it. Toto Wolff has every now and then talked about how Lewis Hamilton was robbed, and in light of this, Adrian Newey has asserted that the 2021 event had a really bad impact on Mercedes. Aston Martin’s soon-to-be Managing technical partner stressed the same during a recent podcast.

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I find it actually, I think it got to Mercedes. And instead of saying, okay, well, accepting it and moving on, it started to affect their psyche, which is an interesting one. That's from the outside, I might be completely wrong.
Adrian Newey said via the High-Performance Podcast.

Newey has given a fascinating take on the whole 2021 Lewis Hamilton – Max Verstappen Abu Dhabi GP saga. Moreover, has cheekily taken a dig at the Brackley-based team for not accepting the loss and moving on. The 65-year-old was very much part of the Red Bull operation during that year.

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Mercedes had no feeling of ‘betrayal’ following Lewis Hamilton’ Ferrari announcement

While Lewis Hamilton was not able to win the record-breaking eighth world championship in Abu Dhabi in 2021, he has moved to Ferrari to do the same. He will be repping the iconic red color of the Italian outfit from next year onwards.

Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton (via IMAGO), Ferrari logo (via Ferrari)

When the news was announced ahead of the ongoing campaign, the world was shocked. However, from Mercedes’ perspective, there was no feeling of betrayal toward Hamilton.

We decided as a team for that and we were always very transparent with Lewis, and the good thing with him is he is able to put himself in your position and understood where we were coming from. So, in that respect there are no bad feelings, there is no betrayal. It was also for the good of him to change.
Toto Wolff via F1.

Hamilton has eight Grand Prix outings remaining with the Mercedes F1 team. He has already amassed two wins this year and would ideally, want to amass a couple more to bring the shutter down on his Mercedes chapter in grand fashion. Quite a few eyes will be glued on the Brit’s W15 from Baku onwards till Abu Dhabi.

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