In the heart of the world title fight, a controversial night in Abu Dhabi 2021 marked a turning point in Lewis Hamilton's career. Between disappointments and hopes, the driver faces his last challenge with Mercedes in search of redemption and success in 2025.
2021 was a memorable year for many, marking the return or falling in love of many new and old sports fans and marked the beginning of the unstoppable dominance of an elusive Max Verstappen. But Lewis Hamilton has never forgotten that controversial evening in Abu Dhabi.
It's been almost three years since the British champion saw his eighth world title slip away on the final lap of the final race of the season. Max Verstappen achieved a victory that was not without controversy, driven by the decision of race director Michael Masi, who had allowed, under the Safety Car regime, the splitting of the competing drivers between Hamilton and Verstappen, who had just left the garage with new tyres. A move considered questionable by many, in particular by Mercedes and Toto Wolff, who accused Masi of disrespecting the drivers and favoring the victory of Red Bull.
Hamilton admits: “I was robbed”
The race, dominated by Hamilton and which seemed to close a year of intense struggle in his favour, instead left its mark on the seven-time world champion forever. Even Bernd Maylander, the Safety Car driver in that controversial Grand Prix, declared shortly afterwards that he thought the title would go to Hamilton, but once on the track and after seeing Max's new tyres, he understood that the Englishman he had little or no chance.
“What if I was robbed? Obviously yes. I mean, you know the story. But I think what was really significant in that moment, and what I drew strength from, was the fact that my father was with me. We had gone through the roller coaster of life together, with ups and downs. And in the most painful moment, he was there, and his teaching was to always stand upright, with your head held high."
Lewis Hamilton's statements for GQ
The 2021 title, which Hamilton claimed to have stolen, marked the beginning of a period of dead silence for the driver for many months, and will certainly impact his mental strength for years to come. A key figure was his father, Anthony Hamilton, always at his side, but above all at that moment, to help him overcome that disappointment and not forget all the successes achieved up to then, when he was already the most successful driver in the top category.
“Obviously I went to congratulate Max, not realizing the impact it would have, but I was also aware that there's a mini-me watching me. This was the defining moment of my life. And I think it really was. I felt it. I didn't know how it would be perceived. I hadn't seen it yet. But I was definitely aware: The next 50 meters I walk are the ones where I fall to the ground and die or get up again.", declared the pilot for GQ.
Precisely in these moments, Lewis remembers his days in karting, his little "mini-me", as he himself calls him, the only black child in that period and still today, as a man on the grid, arriving in Formula 1 .
A different 2025, in Ferrari
A child who at that time also dreamed of being able to race in red at some point in his career. And in fact, 2025 will be a very different year not only in terms of color for the English driver. New Team Principal, new teammate, ultimately a new family very different from that of Mercedes, where he has lived the most important years but also the most difficult moments of his career since 2013. But sometimes life is paradoxical, because returning in 2021, he was there to close the podium Carlos Sainz, from which Hamilton himself has now "taken away" a seat in the most coveted and prestigious team on the grid.
In the end, who knows, maybe 2025, maybe the red, will bring back to Lewis what the controversial evening in Abu Dhabi 2021 took away from him.
