Lewis Hamilton lost the 2021 title under controversial circumstances (Photo: RB/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images)
Sir Lewis Hamilton has said that he does not want to be retroactively awarded the 2021 Formula One title even after Red Bull breached the budget cap.
The British sporting hero controversially lost last year’s championship to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen on the last lap of the last race of the season.
Hamilton was on course to win in Abu Dhabi and claim a record-breaking eighth title, only for then-race director Michael Masi to incorrectly apply the rules surrounding the safety car and hand Verstappen the title on a plate.
While all parties concerned had moved on from that incident, the recent news that Red Bull had committed a ‘minor’ breach of the budget cap for 2021, and therefore may have gained a competitive advantage over their rivals, has further called into question the legitimacy of last year’s outcome.
While Red Bull continue to deny any wrongdoing and intend to fight the FIA’s findings, other teams and drivers have called for them to be harshly punished, with McLaren boss Zak Brown reportedly claiming that Red Bull’s actions are equal to cheating.
The FIA are yet to decide what punishment to hand out, with one option being to deduct points from Verstappen and/or Red Bull, and as Hamilton only finished eight points behind his rival there is a slight chance that he could win the 2021 title – a year late.
But the 37-year-old is not interested in that, saying that he has tried to move on from the events in Abu Dhabi that left him questioning his love for the sport.
Hamilton and Verstappen have mostly made up after last year’s heated title race (Photo: Getty)
Asked if he would welcome such an outcome, Hamilton told Motorsport.com: ‘No, because the damage is done.
‘I have my feeling within of what we did as a team, how we achieved it and what we really truly achieved, and I can keep that to myself within me. We gave it our all and we did it the right way, and I am proud of that.
‘Definitely when I heard about this cost [cap] thing that, for sure, brings up a little bit of emotion. Because you kind of buried it and moved on and then it comes back up, and then it’s like another bit of a kick.
‘And, yeah, that just bought it all kind of fresh again. So then just getting back into the phase of just suppressing it and moving forwards.
‘I’ve moved on from it. I refuse to live in the past. I have already experienced that in 2007 [when he lost the title to Kimi Raikkonen by just one point] and, as a youngster, that definitely kept me up at nights and it was just negative.
‘When you hold on to some negativity, when you hold on to hate or whatever it is, it is just holding you back.’
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The cost cap scandal has put into question Max Verstappen’s 2021 title win.