F1 Stewards Dismiss Both Mercedes' Protests, Verstappen Remains World Champ

Formula One stewards dismissed both of Mercedes' protests concerning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the controversial restart, upholding that Max Verstappen is the winner and 2021 World Champion. 

The first centered on Article 48.8, which states “no driver may overtake another car on the track, including the safety car, until he passes the Line (see Article 5.3) for the first time after the safety car has returned to the pits.” Max Verstappen, who went on to win the 2021 World Championship, was cleared by the stewards of illegally overtaking behind the safety car. 

“Mercedes claimed that Car 33 overtook Car 44 during the Safety Car period at 1832hrs, in breach of Article 48.8 of the 2021 Formula One Sporting Regulations,” the stewards' bulletin said, in part. “Red Bull argued that Car 44 was not ‘overtaken’ by Car 33, that both cars were ‘on and off the throttle’ and that there were ‘a million precedents’ under Safety Car where cars had pulled alongside then moved back behind the car that was in front.”

The stewards did agree that the 24-year-old did “at one stage, for a very short period of time, move slightly in front of Car 44, at a time when both cars where accelerating and braking.” Verstappen did move behind Lewis Hamilton and “was not in front when the Safety Car period ended (i.e. at the line).”

The second protest, though, had larger possible consequences. This one pertained to cars unlapping themselves and the subsequent restart. Article 48.12 says, per Autosport, “any cars that have been lapped by the leader will be required to pass the cars on the lead lap and the safety car.”

The stewards, however, said that even though it might not have been “applied fully” since the safety car entered at the end of the same lap, “Article 48.13 overrides that and once the message ‘Safety Car in this lap’ has been displayed, it is mandatory to withdraw the safety car at the end of that lap.

"That notwithstanding, Mercedes’ request that the Stewards remediate the matter by amending the classification to reflect the positions at the end of the penultimate lap, this is a step that the Stewards believe is effectively shortening the race retrospectively, and hence not appropriate.”

However, Mercedes confirmed that it has lodged its intention to appeal the decision that dismissed the team's protests, according to Autosport. Mercedes will have 96 hours to determine whether it will formally lodge its appeal with the FIA.

A late safety car came out for a Nicholas Latifi crash with just a few laps to go. Red Bull brought in Verstappen to switch to soft tires, but Hamilton had to stay out on his hard tires or else he would have sacrificed the lead.

Due to lapped cars, there were five cars between first-place Hamilton and second-place Verstappen, though all of those cars were behind the two race leaders in overall time. Race officials initially decided those lapped cars could not overtake the safety car. Then, in a surprising and controversial twist, officials then told those five lapped cars they could pass the safety car, putting Verstappen directly behind his rival for a one-lap dash to the finish.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner asked F1 race director Michael Masi over race radio: “Why aren’t we getting these cars out of the way? We only need one racing lap.” 

Masi, later, made the decision to let the lapped cars pass the safety car, which resulted in Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff yelling over the race radio to Masi.

Wolff: “You need to reinstate the lap [57] … That’s not right.”

Masi: “Toto, It’s called a motor race, OK?”

Wolff: “Sorry?”

Masi: “We went car racing.”