If anyone thought that the drivers and members of the Mercedes teams have already finished the season, they will be very surprised. This, despite the end of the final race, was still going on, but not on the track, but in the room where the protests of the German team were analyzed and submitted to the International Automobile Federation (FIA) governing Formula 1.
Officially: Mercedes protests rejected! Max Verstappen is the world champion!
However, both protests were rejected. The decision for the first – Max Verstappen overtaking Lewis Hamilton on neutralization, even before the safety car hit the pit lane, was dealt with fairly quickly. The decision for the latter – a bug in the car duplicate procedure – was made a little later, but with the same effect: sustaining Red Bull’s win and awarding the Dutchman the championship title for the 2021 season.
At around 11pm, Red Bull officials were expected to leave the judges’ room with smiles on their faces and explain that the protest had not been sustained. Journalists noted: It’s over, Max Verstappen remains world champion. The official confirmation of this decision was soon delivered.
Why did Mercedes object to the end of the decisive race for the Abu Dhabi GP?
Let us quote more precisely: On lap 54, neutralization was introduced – a safety car appeared on the track, which allowed the policemen to clean up the crashed Williams Nicholas Latifi car. The leader in the race with a dozen or so seconds from Mercedes did not change tires because he wanted to keep his position on the track ahead of his rival in the fight for the title, Max Verstappen.
However, the Red Bull driver pulled over for soft pit tires and came back in second position, but behind five lapped drivers. Initially, it was not allowed to double (i.e. overtake cars that are already on the next lap of the race in order to be in the right positions before the competition resumed) of the cars going between Hamilton and Verstappen, which would be an advantage for the British. Verstappen would have five cars to pass and a long time – perhaps too much time to get to Hamilton and ultimately finish in first place. However, after Red Bull’s intervention, the judges allowed the double, and Verstappen was facilitated in this way: he started the restart just behind Hamilton, quickly overtook him and then he simply had to defend himself.
Mercedes’s most important objection is how many cars duplicated before the restart. The safety car overtook five cars from behind Hamilton and pre-Verstappen. Then the neutralization was completed, which Mercedes does not agree with. The team believes that, as a rule of thumb, a safety car should overtake any lapped drivers to establish the correct order for the race to resume. The safety car should also descend on the next lap.
In addition, according to the regulations, you cannot overtake until the safety car has pulled into the pit lane, and Verstappen, being held back by it, was in front of it at least once again before restarting the competition.
There is an explanation of the judges’ decisions! What will Mercedes do?
The case with the protests became serious, but it was thoroughly cleared up. In the context of Verstappen’s overtaking Hamilton, the FIA admitted that “the Dutchman was a bit ahead of his opponent for a while, but quickly gave up position, and everything was happening before the start with both players accelerating and slowing down.” The second protest – concerning the duplication procedure – was rejected mainly because the race director, Michael Masi, according to the FIA, had the most important opinion in the context of safety car control and the entire neutralization. In addition, the judges believe that “the safety car ride down the next lap demanded by Mercedes would significantly shorten the race, and that would not be appropriate.”
Mercedes may still appeal against this decision, but it is not known whether the team will want it. There were rumors that it did, but that was before the FIA’s decision was announced. There were also rumors that they could even go to court in the case of the championship title.
Red Bull has already started celebrating and so far does not care about the further fate of possible rivals’ protests. Time will tell if he will have to. For now, the fans and the entire community remained disgusted with the Sunday decisions, but they definitely did not run out of emotions until the end. Even if it’s negative emotions and long after the cars have already crossed the finish line at Yas Marina.
Source: Sport
Tristin is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
