Fernando Alonso may anger Lewis Hamilton with comments on Max Verstappen title win

Fernando Alonso has risked angering his old rival Lewis Hamilton with comments about Max Verstappen's controversial title win. Verstappen won his maiden F1 world title in highly contentious circumstances on the final lap of the season finale in Abu Dhabi last December.

Following the deployment of the safety car, race director Michael Masi only permitted the unlapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to overtake the duo.

The decision caused major uproar in the world of F1, with Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff expressing his displeasure to Masi on team radio at the time of the incident.

That is because Verstappen took advantage of having fresh tyres for the final lap and sped past Hamilton to win the race and clinch the title.

Masi has since left his role as race director in a major shake-up of the FIA's structure.

President Mohammed Ben Sulayem announced Masi's departure last week, with Niels Wittich and Eduardo Freitas taking up roles as alternate race directors for this season.

But Alpine driver Alonso has seemed to suggest Masi did not do anything wrong in Abu Dhabi.

The Spaniard hopes what happened at that race has not led to the new structural changes.

Speaking at the launch of Alpine's 2022 car, Alonso said: "I mean... the new president obviously wanted to make sure that everything was in place, as I said also a couple of times I like Mohammed, I like the approach he has.

"So if he thinks that we needed some new ideas there, it's for the good for everyone, so I'm happy with that.

"On the whole theme of Abu Dhabi, maybe I have a different opinion, I don't think that there was anything wrong there.

"I don't think that they changed it [the race control structure] because of Abu Dhabi, or I hope not."

Red Bull