Red Bull chief makes Verstappen ‘ARROGANCE’ claim over Hamilton Abu Dhabi 2021 controversy

Red Bull technical guru Adrian Newey has revealed how Max Verstappen dealt with the backlash following the controversial ending to the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Verstappen was battling with Lewis Hamilton for the drivers' championship heading into the season finale that year but looked set to lose out to the Brit, with Red Bull unable to match the pace of Mercedes at the Yas Marina Circuit.

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However, a late spanner was thrown into the works when Nicholas Latifi crashed his Williams with just five laps remaining in the race, with his wrecked car stuck in the middle of the track.

Naturally, the safety car was called out, but what transpired next went down as one of the most controversial endings to a race ever.

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What happened at Abu Dhabi 2021?

Being behind Hamilton, when the safety car hit the track, Verstappen gambled on the race eventually restarting and pitted for soft tyres, but Hamilton did not for fear of losing track position to the Dutchman.

Hamilton's call looked to be the right one, with the race looking like it would finish under the safety car. However, race director Michael Masi then ripped up the rulebook and controversially only allowed certain cars to unlap themselves, getting the action going again for one final lap of racing.

Despite Hamilton's best efforts, he could not keep Verstappen behind on fresher tyres, with the Dutchman eventually passing him to win the race and the championship.

Mercedes were in an uproar and so were sections of the F1 fandom, feeling Hamilton should have been an eight-time champion.

Newey was asked about how Verstappen dealt with the backlash surrounding that incident on the High Performance Podcast, to which he gave an intriguing answer.

"I don't…I think honestly Max is so self-assured - and this is in a positive way, it’s not in a negative way - there’s a fine line between arrogance and self-assured,” Newey answered.

“He’s not arrogant, but he is very self-assured and self-confident.

“He’s a deep thinker but he doesn’t let things like that - they don’t really get to him.

“He’s able to shut that off and just get on with his job and on with his task and do what he loves doing which is driving racing cars.”

Verstappen went on to add further world titles to his collection in 2022 and 2023 with Red Bull dominating early on under the latest set of F1 regulations.

Meanwhile, Hamilton is still chasing that elusive eighth world championship ahead of his switch to Ferrari in 2025.

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