Eight-time world rally champion Sebastien Ogier is quick to say that Formula 1’s Lewis Hamilton was “robbed” in the final round of the 2021 F1 season in Abu Dhabi last December.
While Lewis Hamilton has remained silent since losing a potential eighth Formula One world title on the final lap of the controversial Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, many – including Sebastien Ogier – believe the British driver will be on the grid in 2022, despite rumours of an early retirement as suggested by Hamilton’s boss Toto Wolff late last year.
Asked for his opinion on this final race of the 2021 season, Ogier was very frank and unapologetic and believes that the seven-time F1 world champion was simply robbed in this final race:
“I think he will come back to be honest, because he is still in an ultra-competitive environment with the best team of the moment,” Sebastien Ogier told RMC’s Super Moscato Show.
“This year, there are new cars coming out, so it’s true that there are quite a few questions again, but I’m quite convinced that he will come back, but it must have been very, very difficult for him. He really felt like he was robbed, he was robbed! Let’s not be afraid of the words.”
“Even though I have a lot of respect for Max Verstappen, he had a great season, and both of them deserved to be champion, but it’s true that on the last weekend…There was a race where Lewis dominates, he’s in front until the end, and then unfortunately for him, a few laps from the finish there’s this famous Safety Car and they get restarted [for a single lap].
“Either one of them was a great champion, but it’s true that the way the weekend went, it’s a robbery and it’s hard to take for Hamilton.”
Ogier then made it clear that Max Verstappen – over the whole season – certainly did not steal his first world title: “Over the whole season, he did not steal the title, far from it,” concluded the Frenchman.
Drivers in the most dominant car in the history of F1 can take unjust and unworthy victories and strut about as if they are descended from outer space. But the truly worthy driver who took the championship showed his mettle at turn 5, leaving his compatitor leaden footed and like a zombie. Though on old tires, the engine was so much superior that he nearly succeeded in taking the lead back. That he could not do so owes it to the superior driving skills of the champion.
Hands on head as in the picture here shows the drama queen at his best, appealing to the sympathy of his fanboys. I would have continued to be his fan if he had not rammed into his competitor at high speed (it looked perfectly deliberate to me) and then lied as his is wont “He turned into me”.
Perfectly said, many pundits don’t admit this. Even Ogier should understand what happened at the RALLY DE MONACO happened here, LOEB wouldn’t have won if not for the TOYOTAS puncture, so that’s also robbery??
Yes, Loeb wouldn’t have won without the penultimate stage puncture, but puncture’s are freak accidents that can happen.
Entirely different from a race director manipulating rules for entertainment’s sake.
Jean- Marie Balestre was French as well……
Would you say he was robbed if his tire blew out on the last lap?
Wow. I can see why Hamilton has stayed off social media, with people like Vijay living in some kind of parallel universe.
There isn’t a single F1 team that wouldn’t give anything and everything to have an “unfair advantage”. A car quicker than the rest. That is what the teams are all striving for. That’s what all the engineers at the factory are trying to achieve. To think that somehow having a superior car diminishes a victory is madness. Now that Verstappen has won, does that demonise him for being in what was clearly the faster car in many circumstances? Great driver that he clearly is, would he have won in a Hass? And Bottas is no slouch, having managed to out qualify Hamilton at times, but Hamilton (and Verstappen) managed to extract something extra that their team mates couldn’t consistently find, especially Hamilton in the last half of the season (which is coincidentally the first time he started using the simulator? ).
And to toss your toys because Hamilton took out Verstappen? Where you not watching all the other races? Verstappen is a mobile wrecking ball, he doesn’t give a sxxt about who he takes out, it’s just “I’m coming through, get the hell out of my way”. If that makes him a great driver in your book, then so be it. But I would respect him a whole lot more if he wasn’t like that. No doubt that’s how his father has taught him to race, but it is a sport, with rules, and yes, fair play, not some kind of Mad Max movie.
People say that Hamilton can’t beat Verstappen unless he stoops to his level and becomes aggressive also. I don’t think so. He didn’t last year and nearly took the title. Better to finish second and maintain your self respect. History will write the final chapter and it will be interesting to see whose reputation remains intact.
I’m surprised he got asked in the first place, given this matter is entirely WRC-unrelated, although he’s 100% spot-on.