Toto Wolff at ‘peace’ with Abu Dhabi 2021 with Max Verstappen the ‘deserving champion’

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has revealed that he is now at “peace” with Lewis Hamilton’s defeat to Max Verstappen at Abu Dhabi 2021.

Hamilton was denied a record eighth world championship at the infamous 2021 title decider after the FIA’s race director at the time failed to implement the safety car rules correctly.

Toto Wolff: Max Verstappen the ‘deserving world champion’ of 2021

The mistake allowed Verstappen to overtake Hamilton on the final lap to take both the race victory and the world championship, his first of four consecutive titles.

Hamilton, who now drives for Ferrari, has won just three times since Abu Dhabi 2021, having parted ways with Mercedes at the end of the 2024 season.

Appearing on the SAP podcast, Wolff revealed that the pain of Abu Dhabi 2021 “still sticks with me.”

Yet he has conceded that Verstappen was a “deserving” world champion that season, revealing that he and Hamilton are at peace with what happened at the Yas Marina circuit.

Asked to name the first thing that comes to his mind when he thinks about 2021, he replied: “Abu Dhabi.”

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Asked why Abu Dhabi when Mercedes enjoyed so much success in 2021, including a record eighth consecutive constructors’ title triumph, he added: “The eight constructor championships is nice and it’s something that hasn’t been done before in any other sport, so that was a good moment.

“But then how that race panned out? That’s still something which is going to stick forever.

“Now I’ve made my peace and so did Lewis. Max is a deserving world champion, definitely, and the season isn’t defined by one single afternoon or evening.

“But that still is what sticks to 2021 with me.

“It looks like a lot of success [in 2021], but it actually wasn’t because pretty much at the beginning of the season we struggled until I believe it was June, Silverstone, and then we got a second spring and from then on it was pretty good.

“We were on a roll, then Lewis got disqualified in Brazil – unfairly.

“He was put to the back of the grid in the sprint race, recovered greatly and from then on he was unleashed, the best Lewis that I’ve seen in those years.

“But at the end, it didn’t happen.”

Wolff was heard questioning the decision of the FIA race director at the restart in Abu Dhabi.

On his own reaction to how the race ended, he explained: “Obviously my own reaction was… I’ve tried since I was a child to be in control of things because I had a difficult upbringing and I remember around [the ages of] eight, nine, 10 I [realised that I] wanted to be independent from parents and from anybody else and taking decisions.

“And that was a moment where I feel everything was decided. Ten laps to the end or whatever it was, there was no scenario that would take the championship away.

“And then it was taken away and it was a moment of disbelief. That was my personal feeling.

“But then the fighter [in me] came in and said: ‘How can we go again? What are our options in order to challenge that result?’

“So the rational me took over, reflecting. Ola [Källenius], our CEO, was there, and Lewis. We were all in the room. The race team were all in shock and we were figuring out what we needed to do.

“And then obviously Susie [Wolff, wife] was in disbelief. She knew Lewis since they were children and raced against each other, so she was very, very taken [aback] – in shellshock, actually, by the situation.

“And so you progress through the motions of that evening, I guess.”

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