Lewis Hamilton admits he’s haunted after ‘fresh kick’ from Red Bull

Lewis Hamilton has admitted that the ongoing saga involving Red Bull’s budget cap breach in 2021 has brought back painful memories of that year’s controversial Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which saw Max Verstappen gifted his maiden Drivers’ Championship title at the eleventh hour. Hamilton looked set to wrap up a record-breaking eighth title until a late safety car period saw his efforts go up in smoke thanks to a hugely divisive and incorrect call from then-race director Michael Masi.Masi decided to ignore the standard restart procedure in order to clear the way for Verstappen by ordering the five lapped drivers between the two leaders to overtake the safety car late on, which allowed the Dutchman to pass Hamilton on much fresher tyres when the green flags were waved on the final lap. It has since been found by the FIA that Red Bull were guilty of breaching last year’s budget limit, with the media fanfare around the situation having brought up plenty of difficult feelings for Hamilton over the last few weeks.”That, for sure, brings up a little bit of emotion because you kind of buried it and moved on,” Hamilton told BBC Sport. “Then it comes back up and it’s like another bit of a kick and, yeah, that just bought it all kind of fresh again. So then [it was a case of] just getting back into the phase of just suppressing it and moving forwards.”Hamilton stepped out of the public eye for around two months after his Drivers’ Championship title was robbed in Abu Dhabi in order to wrap his head around what had happened during the final few laps of the race. His decision sparked plenty of rumours about whether he was going to call time on his glittering F1 career, but he was eventually able to find the motivation to continue after spending quality time with the people closest to him during the winter break.JUST IN: Hamilton ‘lost seven pounds’ in weight in US GP fight with Verstappen Lewis Hamilton has admitted that the disappointment of last year still haunts him (Image: GETTY)”I am not one to give up like that, really,” added Hamilton. “What really was breaking was to just believe that the sport would do something like that, that that would happen, given that there are so many people you rely on. You expect that the job would be done right.”[That] an outcome of a world championship which so many people have worked so hard for would come out through a wrong decision from somebody, you know? That was probably the only thing. It wasn’t for my lack of love for working with my team or racing cars, it was literally that.DON’T MISSPerez makes Verstappen demand as Red Bull driver targets Mexican GPMcLaren star Daniel Ricciardo makes telling Max Verstappen commentWolff promises big Mercedes change after Hamilton blitzed at US GP The 37-year-old has failed to win a single Grand Prix in 2022 so far (Image: EXPRESS)”If you can lose a championship through wrongdoing within an organisation, that was the thing that I wondered whether [I wanted to continue], but I spent time with my family and that was really the best part of the healing. I just gave all of my time to the kids [his nephews and nieces], building snowmen and just being present with them. That enabled me to really recover, really bounce back.”Hamilton would have been hoping to challenge for an unprecedented eighth F1 title over the course of this year, but Mercedes’ distinct lack of pace has meant that he will now be forced to wait until at least 2023 for another shot at the end-of-season honours. The Silver Arrows have performed well below expectations since producing their worst car in a decade but are confident that the main problems have been identified and will be corrected on next year’s challenger, which Hamilton hopes will allow him to rejoin the battle at the very top of the Drivers’ Championship standings.Follow our new Express Sport page on Instagram here.