Lewis Hamilton not the only one "screwed over" in Abu Dhabi, according to F1 analyst

Lewis Hamilton was not the only person to be 'screwed over' by the circumstances towards the end of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, as per Karun Chandhok. He believes FIA Race Director Michael Masi is also a victim of the aforementioned circumstances.

Chandhok is a former driver who currently plies his trade as an analyst for Sky F1. The Indian discussed the controversial manner in which the 2021 F1 season ended with express.com where he said:

“I think what happened was (Nicholas) Latifi crashed and (Michael) Masi had a choice, at that point, you do a Safety Car or red flag. He looked at the incident and thought, ‘that should be relatively quick to clear up.’ There is a recovery vehicle right there, there is an escape road right there, it should be a quick recovery so there should be a Safety Car. That is fine, that is not an unusual decision to have made.”

Chandhok then highlighted the way the variables changed in a matter of moments during the recovery of Latifi's stricken Williams. He went on to add, saying:

“I think where he got a bit screwed over really is that the brakes caught fire on the car as they were trying to take it off the track. So the marshals had to jump on and get the fire extinguisher out obviously, that dumped a load of stuff onto the track. That, therefore, left Michael in a position of, ‘ah I’ve committed to this part of the Safety Car, now this has happened we have got to leave the Safety Car out for longer than I originally planned’. He couldn’t have red-flagged it at that point, because as per the procedure of the red flag you have to do an out-lap as well as a timed lap. So if he had red-flagged it, we wouldn’t have had a restart.”

Both Lewis Hamilton and Michael Masi are currently waiting for the results from the FIA's internal investigation. Reports suggest Masi could be 'a sacrificial lamb' when the results are made public.

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Will Buxton defends Karun Chandhok from disgruntled Lewis Hamilton fans on social media

Senior F1.com writer Will Buxton had to support and defend F1 analyst Karun Chandhok from irate Lewis Hamilton fans in light of the 2021 season finale.

British TV personality Nick Knowles used a tweet by another user on December 16 to discuss the FIA's statement about the way the safety car was called in before the last lap at the Yas Marina Circuit.

While doing so, he chose to single out Chandhok, a member of the Sky broadcast team, asking if the Indian was 'happy to be a part of this charade'.

Buxton had to step in to back up Chandhok by writing the following tweets:

Hamilton has maintained radio silence ever since the last race of the 2021 campaign. His return to the sport is reportedly contingent on how the FIA's investigation plays out.