Mercedes Wins Record Eighth Constructors' Championship, Files Protest Over Restart

Although Mercedes will not bring home the World Championship this season after a controversial final lap, it was dubbed the 2021 Constructors' Champions. 

No other team has won as many consecutive team titles as Mercedes, who clinched its eighth straight on Sunday in Abu Dhabi. Lewis Hamilton may have missed out on making history as one of the most successful drivers in Formula One this season, but his second place finish helped seal Mercedes' title victory as Red Bull's Sergio Perez retired early.

Since the V6 Turbo era began in 2014, the team has snagged every driver and team title—Hamilton with six and then-teammate Nico Rosberg taking the 2016 crown. Most years it has been a runaway for Mercedes, but this is the first since 2008 that the constructors' title has come down to the season finale.

Mercedes held a 28-point advantage heading into Sunday, needing to score at least 17 points between Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas to take home the crown even if Red Bull duo Verstappen and Sergio Pérez went one-two for the fastest lap.

Hamilton and Bottas finished second and sixth, respectively, but this is the final time they will compete as teammates. Bottas will drive for Alfa Romeo in 2022, replacing Finnish driver Kimi Räikköne. This clears a path for an all-British driver lineup for Mercedes with George Russell taking Bottas’s spot.

But even as it goes home with the team title, Mercedes has lodged two protests over the restart that helped determine who won the World Championship and the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday.

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

Five lapped cars sat between Hamilton and Verstappen as the racers drove around the track behind the safety car for the final laps. But in a surprising and controversial move, those five cars were allowed to overtake the safety car. 

As the decision was made, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff yelled over the race radio to FIA Formula One race director Michael 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.”

Hamilton and Verstappen were left nose-to-tail for a single lap that determined the World Championship. 

Per Autosport, one protest centers on F1's 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.” 

The other centers on Article 48.12, which says “any cars that have been lapped by the leader will be required to pass the cars on the lead lap and the safety car.”