The FIA dismissed Mercedes’ appeal, which was filed in protest of the final results of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021. The FIA reported shortly after 20:00 CET that the stewards had dismissed the protests, confirming Max Verstappen as the 2021 world champion.
What happened in the Championship?
Verstappen won the race by passing Lewis Hamilton on the final lap, although the victory was marred by controversy.
With five circuits to go, Hamilton was leading the race by roughly 11 seconds over Verstappen’s Red Bull, but a Nicholas Latifi collision brought out the safety car. This allowed Verstappen to put on fresh tires and get up to Hamilton, who was still running on much older hard tires at the end, which Mercedes was fine with.
The defending world champions, on the other hand, refused to agree that the FIA instructed some but not all of the lapped cars to pass the safety car, allowing Verstappen to resume right behind Hamilton, eventually passing him and winning the race and the championship.
According to the FIA Sporting Regulations
This is what Mercedes was fighting, citing FIA Sporting Regulations Articles 48.8 and 48.12. Their complaint was based on Article 48.12, which refers to the FIA’s decision to enable vehicles between Hamilton and Verstappen to physically unlap each other but not others.
The FIA Article 48.12 states: “If the clerk of the course considers it safe to do so, and the message “LAPPED CARS MAY NOW OVERTAKE” has been sent to all competitors via the official messaging system, any cars that have been lapped by the leader will be required to pass the cars on the lead lap and the safety car,”
“This will only apply to cars that were lapped at the time they crossed the line at the end of the lap during which they crossed the first safety car line for the second time after the safety car was deployed.”
The FIA, on the other hand, has concluded that there is no cause to be heard, putting Hamilton in second place in the season standings.
Read: Why Max Verstappen was penalised against Lewis Hamilton in the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix?
