Toto Wolff blames ‘utter pathological egomaniac’ for Abu Dhabi 2021 decision

Toto Wolff has given a withering assessment of a ‘totally unimportant person’, after the drama of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

The controversy of that title decider at Yas Marina is now enshrined as one of the seminal moments in the history of the sport, with events going against Lewis Hamilton on the night as Max Verstappen was crowned World Champion for the first time.

Toto Wolff gives new Abu Dhabi comments: ‘A totally unimportant person’

A late Safety Car saw only the lapped cars separating Verstappen and Hamilton on track, rather than all lapped cars, allowed to overtake the Safety Car late on in the race, and rather than the race finishing under Safety Car conditions after another lap behind it, as would have been technically prescribed under FIA regulations, the race restarted with a lap to go.

Verstappen, having pitted for soft tyres, was in a hugely advantageous position compared to Hamilton, who stayed out on used hard tyres, and the Red Bull driver made a move at the Turn 5 hairpin, making it stick and became World Champion in highly talked-about circumstances.

Hamilton was asked recently if he felt “robbed” by that night, and Wolff maintains that events in Abu Dhabi went against Mercedes – and while he did not mention former FIA race director Michael Masi by name, his previous comments about him suggest he is the ‘one individual’ to which he is referring regarding the outcome of the race.

“When I think about it again, it’s so unfair what happened to Lewis and the team that day,” Wolff said in the recently released book ‘The Formula’, written by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg.

“And that one individual didn’t follow the rules and just let it happen.

“He 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.”

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Masi is now chairman of the Supercars Commission in Australia, and appeared at the last F1 weekend at Albert Park as the popular series appeared on Formula 1’s support schedule.

While Wolff still feels wronged by the events of 2021, he admitted it is these moments that partly make Formula 1 what it is, referring to Hamilton as an eight-time title winner.

“It is drama and glory. This is what makes the sport so irresistible,” Wolff said.

“Everyone saw the drama of an eight-time World Champion being robbed of his title. I would have preferred to see it end differently, but the race undeniably left its mark on history.”

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