Toto Wolff admits Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton ‘deserved’ 2021 title despite unfair Abu Dhabi finale
Toto Wolff doubled down on all his previous claims and noted that both Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton deserved the 2021 title.
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Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, and Toto Wolff (via IMAGO)
Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton put forth an extremely interesting battle for the 2021 Drivers’ Championship. Verstappen emerged victorious after creating one of the biggest controversies to ever exist in Formula 1. Hence, three years after the incident, Toto Wolff recalled the time and doubled down on his comments claiming that both drivers were equally deserving of the title.
The 2021 Abu Dhabi finale was considered ‘rigged’ by a majority of the fans. Lewis Hamilton could’ve broken the legendary Michael Schumacher‘s record of seven world championships. However, Max Verstappen won his first championship that season and was extremely excited. Toto Wolff reckoned that despite the massive arguments, both the drivers were deserving of winning the championship.
You can keep arguing about that year, but I think Max and Lewis were both deserving champions.
Toto Wolff said on the High Performance Podcast
Wolff further noted that there were times when Verstappen missed out on massive points over the season where he shouldn’t have. The Mercedes boss recalled the 2021 British GP and the Italian GP where both the championship contenders suffered from a massive accident. Regardless, the Austrian highlighted that despite the ‘unfair’ end to the season, both of them deserved the title.
There were times during that year when Max lost points that he shouldn’t have lost. You look at Silverstone and the crash at Monza that the two of them had. They were both deserving champions on that particular afternoon in Abu Dhabi, but it was unfair.
Toto Wolff added
Toto Wolff still ‘thinks about’ the Abu Dhabi 2021 season finale
Toto Wolff still hasn’t moved on from the incident that happened in 2021 during the season finale. The 53-year-old admitted that he still thought about it every week due to some reasons. However, the main reason for recalling the moment was because Lewis Hamilton deserved the win and the world record of eight championships in Formula 1.
There’s definitely a moment every week that I think about it. But I mainly think about it because I think Lewis deserved to be the greatest of all time with eight world championship titles.
Toto Wolff noted
Hamilton hadn’t spoken much on the incident since then and took it on the chin. Verstappen enjoyed the moment and hasn’t looked back in performing well since then. The Dutchman has won two more consecutive world championships after controversially winning the 2021 title.
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Aditya Pandya
(1528 Articles Published)