What Toto Wolff told Michael Masi as 'anger' over Abu Dhabi 2021 remains

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff claims he tried to support former F1 race director Michael Masi throughout the 2021 season.

Masi’s handling of a late Safety Car in the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix season finale allowed Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who was on fresher tyres, to make a last-lap overtake on Lewis Hamilton to win both the race and the world championship.

Hamilton had dominated the race and appeared on course to claim a record-breaking eighth world title until Masi’s incorrect application of the Safety Car rules controversially changed the outcome of the championship.

Masi was removed from his role after an FIA inquest determined there was a “human error” on his part despite concluding he had acted in “good faith”.

Wolff, who previously described Masi as a “pathological egomaniac”, revealed he offered the Australian advice throughout the season.

“I really tried to speak to Michael and guide him all along the year and speak to him and say, listen, I’ve been in this sport for a long time, listen to the drivers, don’t always be stubborn in your decision-making, don’t be arrogant,” Wolff told the High Performance podcast.

“I tried that for the good of the sport and obviously also for us as a team, not to be vulnerable to situations that could be totally detrimental. So in that sense, just what happened is inexcusable.

“Now, you could say the empathy should make me realise how he feels. I realise how he feels and I know that’s not good, and bad. But he could have thought about it all year long when people, not only me, tried to support [him] in the right way.

“So sometimes you have to just realise that someone is just doing his own thing or taking his own decisions. For me, I don’t care about it any more.”

Wolff admitted he still feels “angry” about the way the championship concluded and thinks about the controversy “every week”. 

“I mainly think about it because I think Lewis should have deserved to be the greatest of all times with eight world championship titles,” he added.

“You can argue all along about that year, I think Max and Lewis were deserving champions. There were instances during the year where Max lost some points that he shouldn’t have lost.

"You look at Silverstone, you look at the crash in Monza both of them had. So both deserving champions. But on that particular afternoon in Abu Dhabi, it was unfair.”

Mercedes have Hamilton’s car from the 2021 showdown on display in the entrance to their factory in Brackley.

“It’s a special car because it’s also a car that turned the situation around after Brazil, where we thought the championship is gone, and it was a very good car after the summer,” Wolff explained.

“It is a car that reminds all of us that things could go wrong very quickly, but things could be right also very quickly. It’s basically how life goes. And that car’s a stark reminder of all the joy and all the pain a situation can bring with it.”