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December 12th, 2022, marks the first anniversary of the moment that rocked the F1 world and names like Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen and Michael Masi became household names. For the uninitiated who only recently started following the sport and are unaware of what happened in Abu Dhabi last season, here's a refresher on one of the most controversial moments in F1 history.
2021 F1 Abu Dhabi GP: Here's what happened
Context
The 2021 F1 title battle was fought intensely between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. The battle reached the last race of the season in Abu Dhabi with both drivers level on points. The equation was simple: the driver who finishes ahead in the race will win the title.
The race
Max Verstappen secured a stunning pole position on Saturday with arguably the best qualifying lap of the season. The race, however, turned out to be a different story. Lewis Hamilton, starting alongside Verstappen on the front row, was able to get the jump on the Red Bull driver and assume the lead in the race.
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Once the Mercedes driver took the lead, it became clear that Lewis Hamilton had the pace to keep Max Verstappen at bay. Throughout the race, Red Bull and Verstappen tried every aggressive strategy in the book, but to no avail as Mercedes and Hamilton had everything covered.
The moment it all changed
On Lap 50, it all changed when Williams driver Nicholas Latifi crashed out of the race and damaged the barriers in the third sector. This brought out the safety car and put Mercedes in a precarious situation. Lewis Hamilton was in P1 with Max Verstappen in P2. If the former pitted for fresh tires, Red Bull would not pit the latter.
If that happens and the race ends under a safety car, Verstappen will win the race and the championship. If Hamilton doesn't pit and Verstappen pits, however, the former will be a sitting duck in case of a restart. Mercedes opted to go for the second option and prioritized track position.
Red Bull pitted Verstappen and put him on soft tires for the end of the race. On Lap 56, the penultimate lap of the season, it seemed that the race would end behind the safety car as there was not enough time to let all the lapped cars unlap themselves.
It was at this point that race director Michael Masi used his overriding authority to order only the cars between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen to unlap themselves.
Consequently, on the final lap of the 2021 F1 season, Hamilton found himself a sitting duck as Verstappen overtook him on much fresher tires for the win and the title. F1 now had a new world champion and his name was Max Verstappen.
The aftermath
The aftermath was quite ugly as fans and the media were outraged at the way the safety car restart was handled. Mercedes appealed to the stewards only to be shot down as the race director had overriding authority in the situation.
The online toxicity of the F1 fanbase, too, found another gear after the event. The FIA's slow process of reaching a decision only ended up angering the fans even more. In the end, Michael Masi was removed from his position as the race director, and his decision was termed a "human error".
Since then, it is no longer a surprise to see Max Verstappen touted as a "human error champion" by Lewis Hamilton fans. All in all, it was a catastrophic mistake by Michael Masi that ended up fueling the online hate even more.
