Mercedes chief Wolff says Hamilton ‘robbed’ of title

PARIS: Mercedes chief Toto Wolff said Sunday’s controversial climax to the Formula One season in Abu Dhabi had “robbed” Lewis Hamilton of the world championship.

He suggested the deposed champion would “never get over” the end-of-race decision-making that had left him a “sitting duck” for Max Verstappen.

And although he had yet to receive assurances that Hamilton would return next season for another tilt at an unprecedented eighth title Wolff stated: “As a racer his heart will say I need to continue because he’s at the peak of his game”.

Both Wolff and Hamilton are boycotting Thursday evening’s gala dinner at the FIA’s Paris headquarters.

“Both of us won’t be there,” the Austrian confirmed.

“I won’t be there because of my loyalty to Lewis and because of my own personal integrity.”

Mercedes lodged two appeals immediately after Sunday’s dramatic finish where, after coasting to victory Hamilton suddenly found himself in a last-lap ‘shoot-out’ with Verstappen.

That arose after FIA race director Michael Masi ruled that the five lapped cars between Hamilton’s Mercedes and Verstappen’s Red Bull could unlap themselves.

It left Verstappen, who had pitted for fresher tyres, to streak past Hamilton and take the race win and his first title.

Two appeals were rejected, with Mercedes then announcing their intention to lodge another appeal, which they withdrew on Thursday hours before the deadline.

“We believe we had a very strong case and if you look at it from the legal side if it would have been judged in a regular court, almost guaranteed that we would have won.

“But the problem with the FIA is the way it’s structured, the FIA can’t really mark their own homework. “And there’s a difference between being right and obtaining justice.”