Christian Horner says Mercedes 'f****d up' with Lewis Hamilton as shots brutally fired

However, an incident with a safety car controversially allowed Max Verstappen to claim the prize instead.

Two years on and Hamilton, as well as Mercedes chief Toto Wolff, remain livid over the incident.

FIA chief Michael Masi was removed from his role as race director as a result of the chaos that unfolded.

Yet Horner thinks the blame lies firmly at Mercedes' door.

Speaking on Sky's A League Of Their Own, the Red Bull chief mischievously said: “I have absolutely no idea [why the race is so notorious among fans].

“Mercedes f*cked up.

"They left poor Lewis out there on tyres that had done pretty much most of the race and we’d pitted with Max, so he was on a fresh set of tyres.

"Max made the move and…”

Horner also insists some sensational driving from Verstappen led to the outcome, rather than poor decision-making from Masi.

“The interesting thing is where Max passed him – it caught Lewis completely by surprise," he stated.

“After the race, Max told us he didn’t intend to overtake him there but he got cramp behind the Safety Car and he couldn’t feel his left foot properly, so he thought: ‘Oh, f**k it, I’m going [for it] anyway.’

“And then, when they were going down the straight, he was trying to wake his left foot up to hit the brakes for the next chicane.”

Wolff remains angry with Masi.

He fired a dig before the recent Abu Dhabi GP by saying the race would have a 'proper' director in place to oversee the event.

And Horner has trolled Wolff by playing down his complaints.

“I think he was just having a bad hair day," he quipped.

“His hair’s very important to him on the camera and I think he was just having a bad day.”

Hamilton is yet to win a single race since failing to come out on top in Abu Dhabi.

He did, though, manage to finish third in the standings this season - behind only Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

And Hamilton recently said Mercedes failed to bow to his demands when it came to improving his car over the course of the campaign.

“I’m sure there were frustrations because I had asked for certain changes, and they weren’t done,” he told BBC Sport.

“No one knew exactly what the problem was. No one knew how to fix it.

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“Having the experience of the previous year, I just applied myself, in terms of digging down, sitting with the guys.

"We were having much better meetings. I was able to stay a lot more positive [things] during the year and be like: ‘It’s going to be a long season but let’s not give up. Let’s keep pushing towards getting the maximum out of the car, whatever that may be.’

“I think for this year they thought: ‘The fundamentals are good and we just have to go here.’

"And it was not the case.

"That’s why I was frustrated in February because they hadn’t made the changes I’d asked for.”