F1 fans make feelings clear on overturning result to give Verstappen’s title to Hamilton
F1 fans have spoken their mind on the result of the 2021 Drivers’ Championship, with the vast majority feeling that Lewis Hamilton should be handed Max Verstappen‘s maiden world title. Former FIA race director Michael Masi, who played a starring role in the controversy, is also in supporters’ bad books as most would be against him returning to the sport.
The timeless battle between Hamilton and Verstappen in 2021 is now well known. It culminated in a breathless season finale, with the Red Bull star overtaking his Mercedes counterpart on the final lap of the final race in Abu Dhabi.
That was enough to clinch his first championship and deny Hamilton his eighth, which would have moved him above Michael Schumacher as the standalone all-time leader. As the final lap approached, Masi ordered the safety car to return to the pits and the lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to pass through.
The two title challengers were therefore brought bumper to bumper, although Verstappen had only just pitted for fresher tyres. The rest, as they say, is history.
Masi was subsequently sacked as race director following an FIA investigation. All this being said, a survey conducted by Express Sport has revealed that an overwhelming 67 per cent of the 5,272 respondents feel that the result should be overturned.
In other words, just one-third of F1 fans who participated in the survey feel as though Verstappen’s gripping first world title triumph was legitimate. Mercedes’ lack of competitiveness since the start of last season has made the debacle even more painful for Hamilton, who has had to watch on while Verstappen cleans up.
The Red Bull ace romped to a dominant Drivers’ Championship last year and looks set to do so again this season, with time running out for 38-year-old Hamilton to add to his already-monstrous tally. As part of the same survey, just over half of respondents felt that 2021 was the Brit’s last great chance to win his eighth crown.
Masi recently returned to the F1 paddock for the first time since the saga, and not all fans were pleased to see him attending the Australian Grand Prix earlier this month. Hamilton admitted that he did not plan to speak to the Aussie in order to seek out an explanation for his controversial defeat two years ago.
