Deposed Mercedes champion Lewis Hamilton will “never get over” the controversial climax to the Formula One season in Abu Dhabi, according to team chief Toto Wolff.
Wolff said Hamilton was “robbed” and the end-of-race decision-making had left him a “sitting duck” for Max Verstappen.
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The Mercedes boss said he hasn’t received assurances from the Brit that he will return next season, and confirmed he would not attend the gala dinner at the FIA’s Paris headquarters in support of Hamilton.
“Both of us won’t be there,” he said.
“I won’t be there because of my loyalty to Lewis and because of my own personal integrity,” he said.
Mercedes lodged two appeals immediately after Monday’s dramatic finish but those two appeals were rejected, with the German team then announcing their intention to lodge another appeal, which they withdrew last night before the deadline.
“We believe we had a very strong case and if you look at it from the legal side if it would have been judged in a regular court, almost guaranteed that we would have won,” Wolff explained.
“But the problem with the FIA is the way it’s structured, the FIA can’t really mark their own homework.
“And there’s a difference between being right and obtaining justice.”
He added: “We decided together with Lewis to protest, to launch the appeal, and to withdraw the appeal.
“But you can imagine not only for him but also for us as a team it was terrible to be confronted with a decision that decided the outcome of the world championship.
“But neither him nor us wanted to win the world championship in the courtroom.”
Wolff confessed that both he and Hamilton “will never get over it”.
“That’s not possible, certainly not as a driver. But I would certainly hope that the two of us with the rest of the team we can work through the events, with the FIA and F1 and utilise the situation to improve the sport.
“But we will never overcome the pain and the distress that were caused on Sunday.”
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