That year both title hopefuls arrived at the final race in Abu Dhabi level on points. Although Hamilton looked like he was headed for a dominant win and record-breaking 8th world championship, the Race Director Michael Masi's handling of a late safety car triggered by then-Williams driver Nicholas Latifi allowed Verstappen one last chance to take the crown, which the Dutchman capitalised on.

After the race, Mercedes protested the outcome, which remained unaltered following the Stewards' deliberation. An investigation into the matter was launched by the FIA and the findings concluded that indeed a "human error" had been made by Masi and his implementation of the rules that governed the safety car procedures.

Four years after the infamous finale Mercedes CEO and co-owner Toto Wolff has claimed he and Hamilton even had a discussion on it recently.

“We haven’t got over it," Wolff said. "I talked to Lewis about it yesterday. I think about it every day and so does he. And it’s stayed with the team, too.

Wolff's attention was then turned to then-Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner's handling of the matter. When questioned if the axed F1 team principal ever admitted to something having gone wrong in Abu Dhabi 2021, he said: “Never. He was never able to admit it.

"They had had some incidents that were unfair to them throughout the season, and the outcome of that race is a fair representation of the performance levels during the season," Wolff concluded.

Wolff explained that after 12 years together, he and Lewis Hamilton had begun to “annoy each other,” and Hamilton’s resignation prompted Mercedes to embrace change with rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli already in the pipeline. Read Wolff's full comments here.

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