Christian Horner has praised Lewis Hamilton’s handling of the post-race scenes at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, detailing an off-camera handshake between the pair in the cooldown room before the podium.
Hamilton was on course for his record-breaking eighth World Championship in Abu Dhabi that evening before a late safety car handed the title to Max Verstappen in controversial circumstances on the final lap of the race.
Despite the outrage from his team and fanbase, the legendary British driver remained measured and civilised after the chequered flag, shaking hands with his title rival Verstappen and standing on the podium for the post-race ceremony.
Discussing the class with which Hamilton handled the aftermath of the Abu Dhabi controversy, Horner told Sky Sports: “I felt the way that Lewis handled that disappointment after the race, hats off to him. Because he would have been even more disappointed.
“Record-breaking World Championship has just disappeared but he handled himself with dignity and respect. I shook his hand in the driver’s room after the race and he had the good grace to say well done.”
While Horner has plenty of sympathy for Hamilton’s experience in Abu Dhabi, he had none for the strategists at Mercedes, who he blamed for leaving the seven-time world champion exposed to a late safety car by running him to the end of the race on old, hard-compound tyres.
“A lot is made about the final lap,” he continued. “But Mercedes went into that race and they were quicker than us. In the Grand Prix, Lewis was able to manage the gap to Max pretty comfortably but then they went very defensive, they went very conservative.
“They left Lewis out on a set of tyres that were 43 laps old so he was only ever a Safety Car [away from being] hugely exposed. I think in being defensive, they exposed themselves to the situation that unfolded.”
Unfortunately for Hamilton and Mercedes, the 39-year-old is winless since the penultimate round of the 2021 campaign, when he led home team-mate Valtteri Bottas across the line at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Both the W13 and W14 were disappointments in the eyes of Hamilton and team principal Toto Wolff, but the Silver Arrows have overhauled their design philosophy for their 2024 challenger.
