In the tumult of Abu Dhabi last November, Carlos Sainz clinched a fine third place at the wheel of his Ferrari, somewhat pushed into the background due to the fact that the world title was decided in an incredible way on the very last lap of the race.
And while Max Verstappen finally won his first Formula 1 title, Lewis Hamilton saw his hopes of eighth coronation suddenly dashed.
Interviewed by Corrierre Della Serra, Sainz admitted that he would have felt “very bad” in place of the Mercedes driver, but that he was “surprised he didn’t cause a scandal at the end of the race.”
“To lose the title like this, on the last lap, is so hard to accept. I respect him even more than before for the way he handled the moment. We exchanged a few words on the podium, he had really hard to understand the situation.”
The decision of FIA race director Michael Masi to restart the race for one lap, all without letting all the latecomers split, is still making a lot of noise today in F1. And the Ferrari driver now hopes the sport will have learned from those incidents.
“We must not repeat the same mistakes. Every football game generates controversy. We must ensure that F1 does not raise the same tension.”
“However, I don’t think the situation is disastrous, I am convinced that we are going in the right direction.”
