The end was not pretty but definitely the most exiting last lap in many years of F1 history. A red flag would not have been appropriate in my opinion, the red flag is for safety purposes, not to equalize opportunities.
Lewis and/ or the team made the decision not to come in for a set of soft tyres, it is not that he did not have the opportunity. Off course that decision was easy for Max because he had nothing to loose. Max had quite a bit of bad luck this season, and Masi's decision turned that around.
And I fully agree that Lewis demonstrated to be a true champion in the way he congratulated Max on the podium. I truly hope that the championship remains to be decided on the track, and not by lawyers in a long lasting fight.
Its easy to make the decision to pit when you have a free pitstop like max did.
So its wrong to say that he did have opportunity to pit . Had lewis come in max would have stayed out as both teams use opposite strategies at times especially when one of them is slower.
If lewis, had pitted and they still risked finishing behind max under safety car as many races go on to finish under sc and sc can last 6-7 laps at times, it would have lasted a lap more this race too if rules were followed.
Masi contradicted his own words from the precedent he set and defended particularly in Germany 2020, where he specifically emphasised that all lapped cars need to pass as per the sporting regulations and thus safety car period was longer.
https://www.planetf1.com/news/michael-masi-contradicts-lapped-car-clarification/
In the hindsight if lewis had pitted and come behind max ,guaranteed masi would not have not led lapped cars through or would have tried to finis under safety car, the way the entire race was manipulated into max’s favor at the end by only letting people between them through , and not in a proper manner. Shows it was intentional.
Max thoroughly deserved the championship for his season overall, but so did lewis for fighting back and Abu dhabi was lewis’s race.
The fact that what happened has no precedent. Says alot of things, especially because masi contradicted his ‘lapped cars may not pass message’ haphazardly midway lap 57.
How is a team to make strategic decision then?
Unfortunate for max his title will always be controversial , inspite of having such a great season.
It seems to me F1 group(liberty media) and FIA wanted to generate interest and attract great attention to the sport before 2022 regs kick in and best way to do it was to make someone else win it, as people were indeed tired of lewis winning.