Dwelling into the legal options for Mercedes with the team going onto lodge an intention to appeal after the FIA stewards threw out their protest at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021
For the first time since 1974, the top two drivers in F1 made a foray into the season finale race level on points. The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021 saw Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen go at loggerheads in a bid to determine who would take home the drivers’ championship title.
And Mercedes’ Hamilton looked set to retain his coveted title and with it rake in his eighth drivers’ championship with him ahead of Verstappen with five laps remaining. However, it was then that his chances of a win went scuttling as Nicholas Latifi crashed into the barrier, set of events which disrupted Hamilton’s race.
Mercedes Lodge Intention To Appeal And To Decide On Approaching FIA’s International Court Of Appeal
After initially claiming that cars wouldn’t be allowed to overtake as the safety car was deployed to clean up the mess, The FIA race director Michael Masi allowed five cars to overtake once the race was restarted, a decision which saw Verstappen restart from directly behind Hamilton on the final race.
As Verstappen who was now on new soft tyres managed to get past the finishing line to win his first ever title, Mercedes decided to lodge a protest with The FIA on the grounds of a breach of Article 48.12 of the FIA’s Sporting Regulations which says that, “Any cars that have been lapped by the leader will be required to pass the cars on the lead lap and the Safety Car Once the last lapped car has passed the leader, the Safety Car will return to the pits at the end of the following lap”.
The protest was dismissed by the stewards who went onto release a statement dwelling into their reasoning behind the decision. The statement went onto read,” That Article 15.3 allows the Race Director to control the use of the safety car, which in our determination includes its deployment and withdrawal.
That although Article 48.12 may not have been applied fully, in relation to the safety car returning
to the pits at the end of the following 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.
While the ruling meant Verstappen would retain his title, Mercedes are not going down without a fight. The team has confirmed that it has lodged an intention to appeal the decision with The FIA confirming Verstappen’s win would also be subjected to an appeal by Mercedes in the ICA. Mercedes how have 96 hours to determine if it will continue with its action and formally submit an appeal with the FIA’s International Court Of Appeal.
“We have lodged our intention to appeal Document 58 / the decision of the stewards to dismiss the team’s protest,” said Mercedes.