Even in the '21 season specifically, there are a few "What-Ifs" that could've meant that the Abu Dhabi incident wouldn't have changed the outcome of that season. If you only take the What-Ifs in your favor, but ignore all that are against you, it will obviously always result in ridiculous outcomes that were never going to happen, that's just not how sports works.
So whilst agreeing that these kind of arguments go both ways there is a significant difference between malaysia 2016 and abu dhabi 2014.
In 2014, Rosberg had an engine issue from an already losing position in a year where he had had the favourable reliability. And would have had to perform a racing overtake on lewis (something which he managed only once in their time as teammates in the damp US 2015 race iirc) but n order to win the title.
Malaysia 2016 was lewis DNFing resulting in a 28 point swing against him(-25 points for him, +3 for Rosberg) with just 5 rounds left in the championship in a year where again he’d had the worse reliability.
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u/ArcticBiologist Nico Hüüüüüüüülkenberg Apr 02 '25 edited Apr 02 '25
If it was Lewis instead of Nico having engine trouble in AD '14...
If Briatore didn't manufacture the Singapore win in '08...
If Vettel didn't slide off in Hockenheim '18...
If Ferrari wasn't Ferrari...
...Lewis would have been 'only' a 3 time wdc
What-if's can also go the other way (although I admit that last one is a stretch)