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Toto Wolff says he is now at peace with Max Verstappen as world champion instead of Lewis Hamilton, but he hasn’t wiped Abu Dhabi 2021 from his mind.
The Mercedes team chief suffered a stroke of anger during and after last season’s controversial final, as a decision by race director Michael Massey had a fundamental impact on the drivers’ championship result.
“Mickey, this is so wrong” was Wolff’s famous quote, and when Verstappen took the crown from Hamilton on the final lap, he could easily have imagined that Hamilton had been stripped of a record eighth title.
The Austrian immediately spearheaded two ultimately unsuccessful post-race protests for the Mercedes team and was publicly silent for days out of anger at what had happened.
Still, Wolff eventually came to terms with the events – Massey lost his job two months later – and still thinks of them often, while acknowledging that Verstappen deserved his moment of glory.
“I think about it every day,” Wolf said in an interview Motorsport Network“But I’m at peace with Max winning the title because he’s a well-deserved champion.
“How it turned out, I think I have values ​​about fairness, especially in sports. That’s my fundamental love for the sport. On that day, it was kicked with the foot.”
read more: Toto Wolff studies Manchester United to understand Mercedes failure
These events proved to be a wake-up call for the FIA ​​at a time when it was changing the presidency, with Mohammed bin Sulayem succeeding Jean Todt.
The new president has overseen changes to the racial control structure, which has so far avoided any further major controversy.
“I think the way Mohammed Ben Sulayem was recruiting pointed the way for me,” Wolff said.
“Everyone has his strengths. I think the main goals of transparency, providing good governance and a good framework are what I see.
“As Mohammed’s organization needs to be in place and everyone needs to find their role, will there be bumps in the road? Yeah, of course. But I’m happy with how it’s going.
“They’re open-minded. They’re not opinionated. To me, transparency, honesty and integrity.”
Is Toto Wolfe ‘thinking about every day’ Abu Dhabi right?
It’s been one of the most dramatic F1 seasons in years, and no one could have foreseen the climax, so it’s understandably hard to get out of the way for those on the wrong end.
There’s nothing wrong with that, especially if it provides positive energy to try and avenge the perceived wrong.
The problem is MercedesOf course, the rule change meant they couldn’t simply pick up where they left off, as Hamilton had been the dominant driver for the final four races of that season.
Their struggle with W13, and their lack of a win so far this year, will make the pain of eight months ago even more difficult to finally overcome.
As for Verstappen being a “deserved champion”, many Hamilton Proponents will dispute this. They will continue to believe that, with good reason, the Briton’s removal of an eighth title will set him apart from Michael Schumacher.
This is a perfectly valid position, especially when Massey got his marching orders right away when the FIA ​​investigation was completed.
However, there is merit in what Wolfe said.He must have approached it from that position Verstappen Leading the championship for most of the season, most of it by a wide margin, and even going into Abu Dhabi having won nine races, Hamilton has won eight races on points.
It was a season where neither man deserved to be champions, and sadly not only did this have to happen according to the rulebook, but the way it was done was very unsatisfactory.
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