Budget cap soap causes 'after kick' to Hamilton after lost world title
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Lewis Hamilton has spoken to the BBC reflected back on the 2021 season finale. The Briton is said to have been disappointed in the sport and the latest soap opera surrounding the budget cap has brought all those emotions back to the surface.
One lap away from a record-breaking eighth world title was Hamilton, but a decision by Michael Masi to bring in the safety car on the final lap of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix turned the entire championship upside down. Max Verstappen became champion and not Hamilton.
Disbelief at Hamilton
''What really was breaking was to just believe that the sport would do something like that, that that would happen, given that there are so many people you rely on. You expect that the job would be done right. And [that] an outcome of a world championship which so many people have worked so hard for would come out through a wrong decision from somebody, you know....'', Hamilton said almost a year after the fact.
Hamilton has since been able to put it behind him and refocus on a new season, but with budget cap riots surrounding Red Bull Racing, his emotions resurfaced. ''That, for sure, brings up a little bit of emotion. Because you kind of buried it and moved on. And then it comes back up and it's like another bit of a kick. And, yeah, that just bought it all kind of fresh again. So then [it was a case of] just getting back into the phase of just suppressing it and moving forwards,'' concluded the seven-time world champion.