Gareth Bale fell out of love with F1 after what happened to Lewis Hamilton in Abu Dhabi

Gareth Bale fell out of love with F1 after what happened to Lewis Hamilton in Abu Dhabi.

Instead, it ended acrimoniously thanks to race director Michael Masi’s decisions in the final few laps. He sped up the safety car procedure to allow racing on the final lap and Max Verstappen passed Hamilton to take his first F1 crown.

He was able to do it so easily because he had been able to stop for fresh tyres while Hamilton had to stay on his worn rubber to keep the lead. Then, Masi allowed the lapped cars between them to move out of the way so Verstappen had a clear run at the Mercedes driver, who was a sitting duck.

Gareth Bale was asked whether he is a Formula 1 fan. The former winger replied, “You know, I don’t, after what happened to Hamilton a few years ago. It wasn’t fair. The fact he [Hamilton] had to go through all the traffic and he couldn’t pit stop. It was never a race.” Erik Anders Lang agreed with him. While Mercedes and Hamilton stated that they have moved from the infamous AD21, it is understood that the fans have not. This includes the football star. 

Retired football star Gareth Bale has revealed he is no longer a fan of F1 after the way Lewis Hamilton lost his chance to win an eighth World Championship title at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

F1 2021 will always be in the conversation for one of the most iconic, fiercest title fights the sport has ever seen after Hamilton and Max Verstappen (plus Mercedes and Red Bull) slugged it out all season long down to the very last lap at the season finale.

And it is that last lap which is still being talked about to this very day and will be probably be discussed forever more due to controversial series of events that led to the Drivers’ World Championship title going to Verstappen instead of Hamilton.

The Mercedes driver had dominated a large part of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and was within touching distance of a historic eighth title, but a late crash from Williams driver Nicholas Latifi triggered a Safety Car period that would change the course of F1 history.

In his role as F1 race director, Michael Masi interpreted the rules to allow only some of the lapped cars to unlap themselves rather than all, only the ones between Hamilton and Verstappen, which in turn led to the creation of a final one-lap showdown between both drivers.

Lewis Hamilton remained out during the Safety Car period and kept hold of track position whilst Verstappen came in for fresh tyres, allowing the Dutchman to sail past with ease and take the chequered flag, claiming his first World title in the process, when the race was resumed.

Verstappen won his maiden championship, and Hamilton was denied his eighth world title. Gareth Bale appeared on the YouTube channel Random Golf Club with CEO Erik Anders Lang and discussed this subject. In the video, he admitted that he stopped watching the sport after “what happened to Lewis Hamilton.” The Welsh icon Bale claimed it wasn’t a fair race.