David Coulthard has piled praise on Lewis Hamilton for the manner in which he handled the Abu Dhabi controversy at the climax of the 2021 Formula 1 season. In fact, the British racing icon has suggested he’d “still be complaining” more than a year on if he were in his compatriot’s shoes.
Hamilton, 38, entered the 2021 ‘Decider in the Desert’ level on points with Verstappen but led the standings based on race wins that season. The Mercedes marvel looked a shoo-in to move clear of fellow seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher as he led into the final laps when disaster struck.
A post-crash safety car gave then-race director Michael Masi a pause before making the ill-advised decision to unlap every car between Hamilton and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. The Dutchman’s timely tire change paved the way for his maiden world title, leading to a period of media silence from Hamilton in the wake of one of F1’s greatest ever controversies.
“The way Lewis handled it was fantastic,” Coulthard told reporters at a recent Red Bull event in Dublin. “Maybe when he was younger, it would have been more difficult to do that. But he’s in his late 30s, he’s done a few laps, and I think with age comes maturity.
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“The benefit of youth is you don’t know, so you’re not scared of anything. As you get older, you obviously start to understand consequences and things like that. But that maturity I think enables you to deal with different situations.”
The 51-year-old went on to admit he wouldn’t have been nearly as magnanimous had the same fate befall him. “I would have kicked off,” he added. “I would still be complaining to the European Court of Appeal!”
Hamilton and Mercedes’ frustrations were validated months later when the FIA admitted ‘human error’ played a part in the debacle, with Masi also relieved of his duties. Hamilton remarked he “wasn’t expecting an apology” but returned with humility in 2022.
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“We knew that probably wasn’t going to happen, but at least there is that transparency that it’s a human error,” he said in March last year. Such a close call may have made a career-worst campaign in 2022 that much more painful, knowing he’s that much closer to retirement without breaking Schumacher’s longstanding record.
Coulthard is unlikely to be alone concerning those who would have reacted with a great deal more scorn after such a cataclysmic controversy. Hamilton’s catalog of other achievements makes for ample consolation, though that won’t quell the Briton’s motivation to finally make up for that miss in 2023, which remains the final year on his current Mercedes contract.
