RED BULL team boss Christian Horner has accused Mercedes of “f***ing up” on the day Lewis Hamilton missed out on the 2021 World Championship in controversial manner.
The infamous 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix saw the British star miss out the F1 world title to Max Verstappen.
December 12 marked the second anniversary of the 2021 season finale which saw Hamilton dethroned from his streak of F1 title wins.
He had won four years in a row before he gave up his crown to Dutch driver Verstappen following a controversial decision.
FIA race director Michael Masi did not enforce the Safety Car rules correctly which led to a one-lap shootout for the title.
Hamilton, who was leading the whole race, was set to secure his eighth world championship but was beaten to the title in the dying seconds with his rival on fresher tyres.
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Verstappen overtook the Brit at the Turn 5 hairpin to take the race victory along with the F1 title.
And it was found the Dutchman had pitted for a new set of soft tyres ahead of the restart while Hamilton was left exposed on worn hard tyres.
Horner accused Mercedes of making a strategic error with their driver.
He told Sky’s A League Of Their Own “I have absolutely no idea” why the race is so well-known.
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Horner continued: “Mercedes f***ed up. They left poor Lewis out there on tyres that had done pretty much most of the race and we’d pitted with Max, so he was on a fresh set of tyres.
“Max made the move.”
Horner revealed Verstappen never planned to complete the decisive pass at the hairpin but aimed to launch a move up the inside as he struggled with a cramp in his left leg.
He said: “The interesting thing is where Max passed him – it caught Lewis completely by surprise.
“After the race, Max told us he didn’t intend to overtake him there but he got cramp behind the Safety Car and he couldn’t feel his left foot properly, so he thought: ‘Oh, f*** it, I’m going for it anyway.
“And then, when they were going down the straight, he was trying to wake his left foot up to hit the brakes for the next chicane.”
Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk
