F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Webber: 'Scars need healing' after furious 2021 title battle

Former Red Bull driver turned TV commentator and presenter Mark Webber has warned that deep scars remain from the climactic 2021 title battle between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.

Webber said the hugely controversial circumstances in which Verstappen beat Hamilton at the season finale in Abu Dhabi means that the wounds inflicted by one of the sport's most competitive seasons of all time still feel very raw and exposed.

Hamilton removed himself from all his social media channels for two months following his defeat, although he's now returned with a post declaring "I’ve been gone. Now I’m back!"

Even Verstappen has admitted that 2021 took a huge toll on him, telling The Guardian newspaper this week: “You can’t have that drama every single year. It’s not good for me, it’s not healthy for anyone in the team - both teams."

Webber agreed, telling Wide World of Sports this week: "It's hard. I think we need a year off. They need a year off. There's still some old scars there that need some healing.

"That might be done after their careers; they can have a red wine together," he suggested. "But while they're racing against each other, they'll be big rivals. And that's what we want in the sport."

After falling behind the Red Bull driver in the middle of the season, Hamilton was forced to stage a huge comeback campaign to go into the final race level on points with Verstappen.

Hamilton was in the lead for much of the race, but was caught out by a late safety car following Nicholas Latifi's crash. He didn't have the opportunity to pit for fresh tyres before the restart, which Verstappen did.

Hamilton's plight was made worse when race director Michael Masi allowed lapped cars to go past, leaving Verstappen right on the Mercedes' rear wing. When the race finally resumed with one lap to go, Hamilton was a sitting duck.

"He led 99 per cent of that race," said Webber. "To lose it the way he did, it doesn't matter who you are, it's a big pill to swallow.

"It was a really tough finish for him mentally," he continued. "He felt he was robbed on the last lap, because he couldn't fight. He had nothing to fight with, and it wasn't through his own doing.

"He was fighting against something that was an outside force," he added. "When it's Max Verstappen on fresh tyres it's a real challenge.”

"For the sport, we were all disappointed it ended like that. It's not how we wanted it to end. Both of them deserved to lift that trophy, but we did not want it to finish like that at all.

"We wanted a straight fight, a clean fight, and unfortunately there was one guy with his hand tied behind his back," Webber argued. "Of course, in hindsight, they would all agree we could have done something different.

"What happened wasn't the ideal scenario," he concluded.

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.

Recent Posts

McLaren: Team orders always ‘make life difficult for ourselves’

McLaren's successful 1-2 finish in the Brazilian Sprint race came with a dose of complexity,…

2 hours ago

Verstappen demoted to P4 following VSC infringement in Sprint

Max Verstappen has been demoted from third to fourth in the final standings of Saturday’s…

3 hours ago

Norris thanks Piastri for handing Sprint win, but not ‘proud’

Lando Norris secured victory in Saturday’s Sprint event in Sao Paulo thanks to a McLaren…

4 hours ago

São Paulo GP: Norris handed sprint win by Piastri

McLaren clinched a valuable 1-2 sweep of the São Paulo sprint race, with polesitter Oscar…

5 hours ago

2024 São Paulo Grand Prix - Sprint Race results

Full results from the Sprint race for the São Paulo Grand Prix at São Paulo,…

5 hours ago

Aston’s Alonso and Stroll to start Sao Paulo Sprint from pitlane

Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll will start Saturday's sprint race at Interlagos from the pitlane…

6 hours ago