Williams team principal James Vowles has shared an insight into how Lewis Hamilton reacted to the heartbreak title loss at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.<\/p>\n
Hamilton saw the title slip from his grasp on the final lap of the race as a controversial safety car restart allowed Max Verstappen to complete an overtake to win the championship.<\/p>\n
It has long been labelled as one of the most controversial moments in F1 history, as the FIA was found to have not followed standard procedures to resume the race.<\/p>\n
At the time, Vowles had a leading strategy role within Mercedes and insisted he felt most sorry for Hamilton, who came agonisingly close to bagging a record-breaking eighth F1 title.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy biggest feeling is for Lewis, because he is such an incredible character,\u201d Vowles told Frankie Langan’s YouTube channel.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe fought tooth and nail for it, and that’s where my feeling is – not for me personally, but for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a result of it, my life has moved on, I’m not with Mercedes anymore, I’m with Williams.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s a part of my history, and if you let it take over too much, you will dull your future.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t want it to do that. It’s just a line in the sand for what happened five years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I feel for Lewis, out of all of it, because to him, it was something that was right there in front of him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Article continues below.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tHamilton was ‘strongest leader’ after Abu Dhabi pain<\/p>\n
Hamilton was not in a position to regularly fight for race wins in the years that followed with Mercedes before he made the switch to Ferrari in 2025.<\/p>\n
The 2021 fallout delivered grief throughout the entire Mercedes squad, despite the team managing to secure the constructors’ championship ahead of Red Bull.<\/p>\n
Although Hamilton was the figure who was central to the drivers’ title loss, Vowles revealed the seven-time champion ensured the motivation and spirit of the team was kept high in the weeks that followed.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere’s the biggest takeaway – not the change in result, but how he dealt with it as a sportsman,\u201d\u00a0Vowles said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m sure you’ve done things in your life – I definitely have – where you just can’t come to terms with what’s happened. That wasn’t him after the race.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIn fact, he ended up being one of the strongest leaders within the team that brought us all together at the time it was the hardest for all of us.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s a true champion, irrespective of what happens on track, that’s a true champion.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Williams team principal James Vowles has shared an insight into how Lewis Hamilton reacted to the heartbreak title…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-606407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-daniel-ricciardo","11":"tag-f1-calendar","12":"tag-f1-live","13":"tag-f1-results","14":"tag-f1-standings","15":"tag-ferrari","16":"tag-formula-1","17":"tag-lewis-hamilton","18":"tag-max-verstappen","19":"tag-motor","20":"tag-motor-sports","21":"tag-motorsport","22":"tag-motosport","23":"tag-motosports","24":"tag-racing","25":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}