Formula 1 journalist, Johnny Herbert who was previously employed by Sky Sports F1 recently commented about the events that occurred during the controversial 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix where Max Verstappen overtook Lewis Hamilton in the last lap to win the 2021 Formula 1 Championship.
Johnny Herbert has been a part of the Sky Sports Formula 1 team from 2011 to 2022. On January 2023, it was announced that he would no longer be a part of the team. The reason for this was not mentioned in the statement. From the looks of it, Johnny Herbert does not seem to be holding back on his statements now that he is not part of the Sky Sports team. When asked if Lewis Hamilton was robbed in 2021, the ex-Sky Sports employee said:
“Yeah, definitely. I know Max gets very sensitive when he hears those words about being robbed. But Lewis was robbed.”
Realest 15 seconds in F1 since December 2021 pic.twitter.com/ISROb5XC7x
— Hamilton Insights (@LH44_insights) August 23, 2023
Before the Mexican Grand Prix in 2022, Ted Kravitz who is also a journalist for Sky Sports, mentioned that Lewis Hamilton was robbed in 2021 on live TV. Due to this statement, the Red Bull team decided to boycott all Sky Sports personnel during the Mexican Grand Prix. An apology was issued by Ted Kravitz and the Sky Sports team after this.
There is no doubt that Max Verstappen and Red Bull don’t like to hear that Hamilton was robbed. However, the events that happened during the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix were very controversial. As a result, the race director at the time, Michael Masi was asked to step down from his position.
Why does Johnny Herbert believe that Lewis Hamilton was robbed?
Before the last race of the season, both drivers were level on points. So it was all to play for at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix where both drivers started in the front row. During the race, Lewis Hamilton drove beautifully and created a gap of over 10 seconds before the end of the race. However, Nicholas Latifi in the Williams put his car in the wall with just a few laps remaining.
At the time, if Lewis had pitted for fresh tires, he would lose track position to Max. So the team decided to keep him on track. Max Verstappen had nothing to lose by pitting for fresh tires. He would come out still behind Lewis Hamilton.
By the time the track was cleared for racing, there were only a couple of laps remaining and a lot of lapped cars in between. During this time, Michael Masi chose to let only the lapped cars between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen get past. This was against the regulations. So with 1 lap remaining, Max was behind Lewis with fresh tires.
I still fail to understand, if the results for F1 2021 remained as decided on the day, then why did FIA fire Michael Masi? #AbuDhabiScandal #F1 #FIA pic.twitter.com/okvRbii403
— Ameer Hamza Asif (@AmeerHamzaAsif) August 16, 2023
Max Verstappen easily overtook Lewis Hamilton in the last lap and became the 2021 Formula 1 Champion. After the race, there was an investigation by the FIA into the last laps of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. As a result, Michael Masi was asked to step down from his position as he did not follow the proper procedures before bringing in the safety car. The Mercedes team still seems to be enraged by the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The results of the race remained unchanged. Max Verstappen retained his title after the investigation. This is why there are some who believe that Lewis Hamilton was robbed in 2021.