Wolff wanted Todt's intervention during Abu Dhabi 2021: “To tell the stewards…”
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Max Verstappen defeated Lewis Hamilton to the title on the final lap of the 2021, benefitting from a timely Safety Car period.Verstappen’s chances were aided by race director Michael Masi’s incorrect application of the Safety Car rules.Why are Mercedes going backwards in F1 2023?Video of Why are Mercedes going backwards in F1 2023?What happened led to widespread fallout, with Mercedes protesting the decision after the race.Nothing came of it with Mercedes withdrawing their appeal and Verstappen securing his first world title.Todt, who was FIA president at the time, refused to interfere, leaving it down to the stewards to make a decision.Todt said earlier this year: “I didn’t do anything, it’s not the role of the president of the FIA.“Referees must be autonomous. Have you ever heard [FIFA president Gianni] Infantino say ‘Here there was a penalty, and here there was not’.Related Preparations for Imola continue to be disrupted due to heavy flooding Perez defends teammate Verstappen over ‘bad loser’ claim“In the documentary [‘The Method’ on French TV] you can see that I’m watching that race in the country house with the crew. “Horner and Wolff call me and to them I reply: ‘I can’t interfere, it’s the responsibility of the stewards and the race director.’”While Wolff is now “at peace” with what happened, he wishes Todt intervened.”For us it was a catastrophic set of circumstances, but it was the making of one man – there is no big conspiracy theory behind it,” Wolff told ESPN.
“Would I have wished that Jean Todt got involved rather than being filming for his documentary? Yes. At least to tell the stewards to look at it the right way.”But would it have made a difference? I don’t know. It was the making of one man, this was a championship between two drivers and two teams, both had merited to win and on the day the outcome was different because one guy just lost the plot.”But I am at peace with it now.”
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