Toto Wolff has said he looked to “guide” ex-FIA race director Michael Masi in his role throughout 2021, using his experience in Formula 1 to tell him to “listen to the drivers” and not be “arrogant” or “stubborn”.

The Mercedes team principal and CEO admitted the dramatic end of the 2021 season, in which Max Verstappen passed Lewis Hamilton on the final lap in Abu Dhabi when the Safety Car was called in under controversial circumstances, left him “angry” at the time, and that he still thinks about that race weekly – due to Hamilton being denied an eighth World Championship in that moment.

Toto Wolff told Michael Masi ‘listen to the drivers’ and ‘don’t be arrogant’ in 2021 season

Verstappen and Hamilton duelled all season long in what is now widely considered as one of the most thrilling title battles in F1 history, but the FIA’s report into the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix found that Safety Car rules were incorrectly applied.

Only the lapped cars separating the Red Bull and Mercedes drivers were allowed to overtake the Safety Car, without an additional lap being completed afterwards – which would have taken the race to the chequered flag.

Wolff wanted to place the race into its proper context, given there are many more consequential events happening in the world, but acknowledged how it left him feeling afterwards as a result of the then-race director’s actions.

When asked how that night in Abu Dhabi made him feel on the High Performance podcast, Wolff replied: “Angry. Not anything like depressed or sad, just angry. Angry that an individual was able to take an eighth championship away from the best driver in the world by [a] bad decision.

“Now, you have to put that into context. You know, there’s dictators around the world, mad politicians that cause so much pain and so much harm that is in no way comparable to Lewis losing the eighth title or us a team, but it was just the anger of that moment, the anger on a person, and not emotionally draining.

“And even Lewis, he learned to manage his emotions very strongly. Even Lewis, after a few days, was in an okay space.

“Now, that thing still goes with us and is with us because of the very unfairness that happened on that particular day, but it is not like in our mind all the time and makes us suffer.”

Masi left the FIA several months later in the aftermath of this race, with the governing body opting to operate a rotating race director system in his place.

Wolff revealed he and others within the paddock had sought to speak to the Australian throughout the 2021 season to help him in a consequential year for Formula 1, but believes the actions of Abu Dhabi were “inexcusable” as a result.

“I really tried to speak to Michael and guide him all along the year, and speak to him and say, ‘Listen, I’ve been in this sport for a long time. Listen to the drivers. Don’t always be stubborn in your decision making. Don’t be arrogant.’

“And I tried that for the good of the sport, and obviously also for us as a team, not to be vulnerable to situations that could be totally detrimental.

“So in that sense, this is just, what happened is inexcusable. Now, you could say the empathy should make me realise how he feels.

“I realise how he feels, and I know that’s not good and bad, but he could have thought about it all year long when people, not only me, tried to support in the right way.

“So sometimes you have to just realise that someone is just doing his own thing or taking his own decision. So for me, I don’t care about it anymore.

“You and I speak about it, we waste three minutes of our time, but he has no relevance.”

Almost three years on, Wolff also revealed he still thinks about the race regularly, given the impact it had on Hamilton potentially going out on his own with the highest number of World Championships in Formula 1 history.

The Mercedes team principal believes both he and Verstappen were worthy winners of the crown that year, but given how the race unfolded, he sees it as being “unfair” on the departing Silver Arrows driver.

“For sure, every week,” Wolff replied when asked how often he thinks about the events of Abu Dhabi 2021. “Yeah, there’s a moment every week where I think about it, but I mainly think about it because I think Lewis should have deserved to be the greatest of all time with eight World Championship titles – and you can argue all along about that year.

“I think Max and Lewis were deserving champions. There were instances during the year where Max lost some points that he shouldn’t have lost.

“You look at Silverstone today, you look at the crash in Monza both of them had, so both deserving champions. But on that particular afternoon in Abu Dhabi, it was unfair.”