© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
In a baffling statement, Sky Sports F1 commentator David Croft says he will be “not only stunned but impressed” if anything “comes close to the last lap of Abu Dhabi in 2021”.
In the final moments of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, race director Michael Masi made a series of shocking decisions that went against the rules which govern the use of the Safety Car, and this basically handed the race and title win to Max Verstappen.
The controversial decisions were later described by the FIA as a “human error”, but the result stood, and Lewis Hamilton was left without an eighth championship, which he almost certainly would have won had the rules been followed.
However, it appears that Sky Sports F1’s commentator David Croft, who was on duty for that race, thinks what happened in Abu Dhabi was an example of the beauty of the sport.
“I think, of all the races I have covered, and I could go on forever about the great races, but if anything ever comes close to the last lap of Abu Dhabi in 2021, I will be not only stunned but impressed that a sport can do that, to be honest,” Croft said on the Sky Sports F1 podcast.
“I was in the office one day, about eight races out, going: ‘This is going down to the wire. They’re going to have the same amount of points when we get to Abu Dhabi.’
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“I could just see it. It was just one of those seasons, and so it transpired. Did we think it was going to come down to the last lap?
“No, and certainly, for most of the race, it didn’t look like it was going to boil up into anything. But that is the beauty of live sport. Things change around in an instant.
“To be there at the centre of it and to be the lead voice alongside the man [Martin Brundle] who has brought F1 into the homes of people for a lot longer than me and will carry on doing so for many, many years to come, and for Martin and I to be there in that moment and to have the privilege of describing that action, that’s what any kid kicking a football around pretending to be Martin Tyler aspires to,” the Briton concluded.
To try and ignore what happened in Abu Dhabi is one thing, but to talk about it in glowing terms, while completely ignoring how it went against any semblance of fairness and sporting integrity, it’s just baffling.
