Gareth Bale confesses he no longer follows F1 because of what happened to Hamilton at Abu Dhabi 2021

Everyone knows that Gareth Bale loves golf. The former Real Madrid player likes the 18-hole sport almost more than football. What is not so well known is that he also follows F1. Or to be more precise, he follows the current events of the Grand Prix.

So what happened to make the legendary forward stop watching the races? Well, the Welshman recently confessed that he was very angry with the outcome of the F1 World Championship 2021. That controversial finish in Abu Dhabi caused Bale to disengage.

The disputed decisions of Michael Masi, race director at the time, disadvantaged Lewis Hamilton, who saw Max Verstappen snatch the title from him on the last lap of the final grand prix. The Englishman was left without his eighth crown when he had the championship in his pocket. The safety car management after Nicholas Latifi’s accident led to the first world championship for the Red Bull star.

“You know, I don’t after what happened to Hamilton a few years ago. It wasn’t fair,” he told the Random Golf Club YouTube channel when asked if he tunes in to F1.

“The fact he had to go through all the traffic and he couldn’t pit stop… it was just never a race.”

The truth is that the former Welsh international is wrong about one thing. Hamilton was able to stop, but his team decided that he should not lose his position on the track. Another thing is the management of the lapped cars and the decision not to finish the race under the safety car regime.

That was the theory still held by Mercedes boss Toto Wolff. And let’s not forget that regardless of the opinions of those involved, the FIA decided to remove Masi from his position. The Australian was never to play a leading role in F1 again.