Lewis Hamilton 'presented with opportunity' to strip Max Verstappen of title after lawsuit
Lewis Hamilton is still hunting for his record-breaking eighth World Championship after losing out to Max Verstappen in 2021.
Former team manager Peter Windsor believes that Felipe Massa’s legal case against F1, the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone over the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix could set a precedent and offer Lewis Hamilton the ‘opportunity’ to revisit the events of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Massa is now suing the three parties for damages after Ecclestone admitted in an interview last year that he was aware of the foul play involved in the Singapore GP at the time, but opted not to investigate the incident until the following year ensuring that, within the FIA regulations, the result of the World Championship could not be altered.
According to Windsor, this move could have a knock-on effect when it comes to the 2021 title fight. In this instance, Hamilton was passed on the final lap of the final race by Max Verstappen after race director Michael Masi went against standard safety car protocols to create a last-lap shootout.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Windsor said: “Abu Dhabi ’21 was an absolute error of a huge proportion. It resulted in Max Verstappen winning the championship. It was a one-race error but as a result, Max won the world championship.
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“On the basis of what Felipe is doing about 2008 in Singapore, in theory, there is certainly a lot more discussion to be had about what happened in Abu Dhabi ’21. In my view, the last lap should not have been counted and Lewis should’ve won that race and should’ve been world champion.“
Windsor later added: ”Deep down inside, if you said to Lewis Hamilton, ‘If you lost the 2008 world championship to Felipe Massa but you got the ’21 championship back, would you be comfortable with that?’ I think he’d be very comfortable with that.”
While Windsor does believe that Hamilton has a case should he wish to pursue it in the necessary legal channels, the seven-time world champion is unlikely to revisit the heartbreak before his glittering career comes to a close.
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During the following 12 months, he worked hard to move past the incident, explaining: “Abu Dhabi, the scar is there and there will always be that memory.” However, there is no bad blood between Hamilton and Verstappen two seasons on from the race.
"I think even we spoke back then,” Hamilton told Autosport amid speculation linking his former rival to Mercedes. “Max in that moment, he did what he had to do, it was nothing on him, it was the sport that let us down."