"It sat so heavily with me": Susie Wolff bitterly recalls Lewis Hamilton's infamous 2021 championship loss to Max Verstappen

F1 Academy managing director Susie Wolff recalled the controversial 2021 Abu Dhabi GP, where Lewis Hamilton lost a potential eighth F1 title to Max Verstappen. It was that race, especially the final lap call by the race director, that ended the then-Mercedes driver's reign in F1, and went down as a dark moment in the sport's history.

A few days ago, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff and his wife, Susie Wolff, were at the Lyceum Theatre in London’s West End for the launch of the latter's motorsport memoir, Driven. In one segment of the show, the couple touched upon Lewis Hamilton's 2021 championship loss, which became a pivotal moment in Mercedes' history and their lives.

"It was disbelief," Susie Wolff said (via the Telegraph). "That one person’s decision to interpret the rules in a way that they had never been interpreted before could have caused such an outcome. It sat so heavily with me for a long time afterwards."

Hamilton and Verstappen entered the Abu Dhabi GP race weekend level on points - 369.5 points each. The Mercedes driver was leading the race in the closing stages when Nicholas Latifi's crash brought out a late safety car. Verstappen was in P2, but there were many lapped cars between the two.

Then-race director Michael Masi decided to let those lapped cars unlap themselves under the safety car, and then green-flagged the race with one lap to decide the championship. Max Verstappen, who had recently pitted and had fresher tires, overtook Lewis Hamilton and sailed away to his first F1 championship and eventually three more.

Toto Wolff branded Michael Masi an "utter pathological egomaniac" over Lewis Hamilton's 2021 championship loss

Michael Masi at the 2021 F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Source: Getty

The 2021 Abu Dhabi GP effectively marked the demise of F1's most successful driver-team pairing. F1's governing body, the FIA, acknowledged that Michael Masi had made a "human error" by calling in the safety car earlier than the sporting regulations demanded. While the FIA faced a backlash from fans, Lewis Hamilton went completely silent after the season ended, taking a sabbatical from social media.

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff took a severe stance against Michael Masi's controversial call, and in the years since, has severely criticized the Australian. In December 2023, Wolff labeled Masi an "idiot who made the wrong decision." In 2024, the Mercedes team principal reiterated his stance, but more aggressively.

"When I think about it again, it's so unfair what happened to Lewis and the team that day," Wolff said in Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg's book 'The Formula' (via RN365). "And that one individual didn't follow the rules and just let it happen. 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."

Lewis Hamilton felt he was "robbed" of the race win and the record eighth F1 drivers' championship. Mercedes failed to master the new technical regulations from 2022 onwards, and the Briton's struggles increased.

In pursuit of the eighth title, he joined Ferrari in 2025. However, the Scuderia is struggling more than ever under the current regulations, and Hamilton has yet to earn a podium with the team.

Edited by Yash Kotak