Jean Todt has revealed that he was contacted by both Toto Wolff and Christian Horner during 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Just days away from the end of his presidency, the election to decide between Mohammed ben Sulayem and Graham Stoker taking place the following Friday, Todt did not attend the season finale preferring to watch it from his home in Paris.

In a new documentary 'La Methode' the Frenchman reveals that in the moments after the chequered flag he was contacted by the bosses of both Mercedes and Red Bull.

"Toto, you must see with the stewards," Todt told Wolff when the Austrian called on him to intervene. "I followed everything, but I don't have the elements to answer you. You must listen to the stewards and understand what happened."

Responding to Horner, he said: "Congratulations so far. I understand that there are some protests around. Anyway, what a race and congratulations on your strategy, amazing!"

The race will go down in sporting history as one of the most controversial ever, and almost 18 months later continues to divide opinion.

Talking to Corriere della Sera this week, Todt admits that even as FIA president he was powerless, as any decisions over the race were down to the race director and the stewards.

"I didn't do anything, it's not the role of the president of the FIA," he insists. "Referees must be autonomous. Have you ever heard Gianni Infantino (the FIFA president) say 'here there was a penalty, and here there was not’?.

"In the documentary you can see that I'm watching that race in the country house," he adds. "Horner and Wolff call me and to them I reply: 'I can't interfere, it's the responsibility of the stewards and the race director'."

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1. Posted by ChickenFarmerF1, 11/04/2023 15:51

"@equator180 - Mercedes believed that the safety car period would last beyond the end of the race, so maintaining track position was thought more important than fresh tires. Had the safety car been run as expected by everyone (well, other than Red Bull and Masi) they would have been right. Had Hamilton put on fresh tires, and been able to maintain favorable track position, he would have been able to keep Verstappen at bay pretty easily.

If Hamilton had pitted, Verstappen probably would have stayed out, granting him the lead of the race. If the Latifi wreck couldn't be cleared fast enough that would have left Hamilton in second for a finish behind the safety car. If it could be cleared then Hamilton would have had to pass Verstappen, and outside of having all the lapped cars cleared out of the way (Hamilton would probably have had fewer lapped cars to content with, but not zero) they (correctly) figured it was a losing proposition as getting onto Verstappen's gearbox would have taken too long to still pull off a pass before the checkered flag."

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2. Posted by equator180, 11/04/2023 8:35

"Here as with many other sites the topic about rules and favoritism will hardly die a peaceful death. One small thing came up on a few of the discussions which perhaps the forum here could answer; why didn't Hamilton pit as well and put on fresh tires? Would this have changed anything or is it something which should not be talked about? "

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3. Posted by ChickenFarmerF1, 11/04/2023 0:01

"Todt is so spineless. He could have just asked the race director/stewards which rule allowed them to do what they did. That's not telling them how to rule, that's not really even pressuring them to do anything but follow the rules. But asking them to say, publicly, chapter and verse, the rule that let them wave the lapped cars through, but only the ones between Verstappen and Hamilton, and then do a single lap of green flag racing would have been totally appropriate.

Yeah, yeah, I know, there was a rule that said "any" instead of "all". The intent of the rule was obvious, and they knew it. Hence why it got changed without even RB objecting from 2022. There's a reason every non-RB driver was at best perplexed by what happened. That and all the other reasoning applied to let the results stand was specious. I wish Mercedes had taken it to court. I understand why they didn't.

Note, I'm not a huge fan of Hamilton anymore. That doesn't change my judgement of the situation. Had the roles been reversed I'd say the same in defense of Verstappen."

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Todt reveals new twist to Abu Dhabi saga

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