"Possibly regretted": Jolyon Palmer on crucial Lewis Hamilton-Valtteri Bottas decision which haunts Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton's quest for a record-breaking eighth F1 World Drivers' Championship (WDC) was left unfulfilled at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. However, according to former F1 driver Jolyon Palmer, the Mercedes driver's fate may have been sealed months prior to that, at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Palmer made an astute observation in his year-end compilation of star performers and key moments for Formula1.com. He singled out Mercedes' decision to swap Valtteri Bottas and Hamilton at the Austrian Grand Prix as a pivotal moment which might have ended up costing the latter the WDC. He wrote:

"...In the end, it felt like Red Bull were more preoccupied by the drivers’ title, as they sacrificed Perez’s races a couple of times in Silverstone and Abu Dhabi, while Mercedes possibly regretted ordering Bottas back past Hamilton in Austria..."

The seven-time champion was in P2 when, on Lap 48, he ran wide and rode over the sausage kerbs at the Spielberg circuit, suffering substantial floor damage in the process.

Consequently, Lewis Hamilton's damaged Mercedes struggled to keep pace with race leader Max Verstappen. Seeing this, the team decided to allow Bottas to go on the offensive and overtake the Briton to pursue the leading Red Bull.

Lewis Hamilton soon found himself engaged in a wheel-to-wheel battle with compatriot Lando Norris, who had enough pace in his McLaren to nudge the Mercedes driver off the final step of the podium.

Bottas, however, failed to reel in Verstappen and finished in P2 to pick up 18 points while Hamilton picked up 12 points for P4.

According to Palmer, Mercedes could be ruing that call because Hamilton lost vital points which could have proved crucial near the tail end of the season.

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Imola and Baku performances could be bigger regrets for Lewis Hamilton in 2021

While Jolyon Palmer's observations about Mercedes' decision-making in Austria are valid, one could argue that his title challenge suffered even bigger blows in Azerbaijan and San Marino.

Lewis Hamilton made costly errors at both the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix and the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Barring those mistakes, he might have ended the season with an unprecedented eighth WDC.

The Briton was in contention to win at Imola before he spun out and damaged his front wing. Although he recovered brilliantly, keeping his engine running and finishing the race in P2, it wasn't enough to deny Max Verstappen his first win of 2021.

In Baku, Lewis Hamilton was in prime position to win after erstwhile race leader Verstappen suffered a terminal tire blowout and brought out the red flag.

On the Lap 50 restart, however, Hamilton forgot to turn on a device which heated his brakes, resulting in the Briton outbraking himself in Turn 1 and spearing off-track. Sergio Perez inherited the lead and went on to win for Red Bull while Mercedes' title contender finished out of the points in P18.

2021 wasn't the first time Lewis Hamilton lost the title by the finest of margins. At the end of his debut season in 2007, the Briton came up a single point short of Kimi Raikonnen's tally. He was also pipped to the 2016 WDC by teammate Nico Rosberg, who had five more points to his name to secure his sole title.

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