The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team has decided to cancel their appeal of the actions that defined the final lap of last week’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Despite earning their eighth consecutive Constructor’s Title in the season finale, and having their 7-time champion Lewis Hamilton – now Sir Lewis Hamilton – leading on the penultimate lap under caution, they were unable to hold back a charging Max Verstappen on fresh soft Pirelli rubber, and he took the win and the Driver’s Championship, denying Hamilton a record eighth title.
While deciding not to continue their appeal of the finish, the Mercedes team did elect to forego the FIA’s Prize Giving formalities held the evening of December 16th.
“Together with Lewis, we have deliberated carefully over how to respond to the events at the Formula 1 season finale,” the team stated. “We have always been guided by our love of this sport and we believe that every competition should be won on merit. In the race on Sunday, many felt, us included, that the way things unfolded was not right.”
The team protested the race results on Sunday, stating the Safety Car regulations, as written, were applied in a contrary manner. These affected the race result.
On Wednesday the FIA announced it would deliberate and analyze what occurred with race director Michael Masi, a well-respected entity in the sport. “We welcome the decision by the FIA to install a commission to thoroughly analyze what happened in Abu Dhabi and to improve the robustness of rules, governance and decision-making in Formula 1,” the team’s statement continued. “We also welcome that they have invited the teams and drivers to take part.”
Newly elected FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem, a former rally driving standout, was firm in his condemnation of the two absences at the FIA’s prize giving ceremony, stating that there would be “no forgiveness” if either Wolff or Hamilton contravened any FIA rules about attendance at the event.
What the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team did not address was its own failure to call their No.1 driver to the pits so they could exchange his worn hard Pirelli rubber for new. This procedure can take but a couple of seconds and the only loss is in entry and exit of the pits.
With the two caution periods, under both the Virtual and physical Safety Car,s that could easily have been made up, especially since Masi decided to have the lap cars between leader Hamilton and second-placed Verstappen waved around the Safety Car, something that’s fairly standard in American open-wheel racing.
Parameters should have been stated earlier concerning this possibility, which hasn’t occurred in Formula 1 before this particular race. It was definitely a faux pas on Masi’s part to insert a new ruling that was unknown to participants, but it was definitely a faux pas on the part of the Mercedes team not to put their prospective 8-time champion on tires that could allow him to challenge Verstappen, should that scenario play out – as it did.
Easy to find faults from watching television and reading the opinions of others. What’s done is done and Verstappen’s 10 victories on the season, despite some of his appalling on-track actions, made him World Champion for 2021. Everyone in The Netherlands is excited about having their first F1 titleholder. Hamilton is now a knight in England. We have until March to hash this out. Hopefully, changes will be made that encourage regulations that are followed to the letter.
It would have been foolish for merc to call Lewis in to box, because they would have lost track position. They really were btwn a rock and a hard place, with just bad luck. In hindsight, a red flag would have been fairest, so that everyone would be on new rubber.
Au contraire, it was foolish of Merc to NOT call in Hamilton for fresh tires, especially nice soft ones which warm up quickly. They had the best car, arguably the best driver (did they not have confidence in Hamilton???), and they did not have RACECRAFT in mind. Unfortunately for them, the Vestappen team happened to be racing that day, while Merc was profiling, and they let their guy RACE!