F1 LIVE: Mercedes plan another appeal ahead of a possible legal fight
F1 LIVE: Mercedes fight on as they plan ANOTHER appeal, believing Lewis Hamilton was robbed of an eighth championship… as Red Bull insist they will not shy away from a legal battle after Max Verstappen took a controversial victory in Abu Dhabi
- Max Verstappen was crowned F1 champion amid huge controversy on Sunday
- The Dutchman overtook rival Lewis Hamilton on the final lap in Abu Dhabi
- Mercedes took issue with the application of the safety car procedure
- They have launched two appeals so far, both of which have been rejected
- There is more to come, with Red Bull ready and braced for a legal battle
- Latest Formula One news, including live action and results
The ugly off-track conclusion to the 2021 Formula One world championship is rolling on this morning as Mercedes continue to fight in the wake of Sunday’s controversial Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen was crowned world champion in controversial circumstances, using a safety car restart – and a helping hand from the FIA – to overtake rival Lewis Hamilton on the final lap at the Yas Marina Circuit.
Join Sportsmail’s BEN NAGLE for the latest updates as the fight for the Formula One title continues…
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In response to the news that Mercedes could take it further, the Red Bull team principal said:
‘If they appeal, they appeal. We’ll fight it in the appeal court and then in a legal court after that.’
Mercedes have until Thursday to make a final decision on their appeal, but at this stage you’d think it’s most likely they will push higher in a bid to change the result.
Well, things could get uglier. As reported by Sportsmail on Sunday night, Mercedes are now considering whether to take the battle a step further – and into the courtroom.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was last night locked in talks with the team’s barrister, Paul Harris QC, a distinguished sports lawyer who has acted for Premier League football clubs, including Manchester City and Liverpool.
Here’s the full story:
For balance, we should put across Red Bull’s response to how the race ended… and as you might expect, they were happier with the result than Mercedes.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said: ‘We never wanted to end up in front of the stewards. We don’t go racing with barristers. It was a shame it ended up there but the stewards made the right call.
‘We have talked about ‘let them race’. [The late Mercedes non-executive chairman] Niki Lauda was the guy who pushed hard for it and we’ve always talked about not finishing races under safety cars. The race director in difficult circumstances made absolutely the right call.’
I’ll try and explain this as simply as I can, but as I’m sure you can understand, the FIA rulebook does tend to get a little wordy. It’s pretty clear why Mercedes would be furious, though.
Essentially, during a safety car period of a race, lapped cars are usually allowed to unlap themselves, in order for them to push further up the road and therefore not interfere with the race.
The confusion in Abu Dhabi first stemmed when Michael Masi – the race director – initially appeared to not want the five cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to move, before then changing his mind and allowing it.
Mercedes’ argument, though, is that Masi allowed the five back markers between Hamilton and Verstappen to move, but not the cars between Verstappen in second and Charles Leclerc in third.
Article 48.12 of the sporting regulations says: ‘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.’
At the same time, article 48.12 of the sporting regulations says that ‘once the last lapped car has passed the leader, the safety car will return to the pits at the end of the following lap’.
In that explanation, the word ‘following’ is hugely important. Controversially, the race in Abu Dhabi was started at the end of the same lap.
If it had been a lap later, Mercedes argued, Hamilton would have won the race.
Toto Wolff and his Mercedes team, unsurprisingly, are furious with the result of the race and immediately made two appeals to the FIA.
The first, and most important, of the two protests was surrounding race director Michael Masi, with Mercedes claiming he did not apply the rules correctly.
The second appeal was regarding Verstappen nosing ahead of Hamilton a number of times before the restart at the end of the race.
Both appeals have been rejected, paving the way for an ugly off-track battle in the close season.
Firstly, let me explain what’s happened so far, so we’re all up to date and can go through all the latest news as we get it throughout the day.
Sunday’s race in Abu Dhabi, as I’m sure you are aware, was a straight shootout for the title between Hamilton and Verstappen. As the race drew to its conclusion, it looked for all the world as though Hamilton was going to secure his eighth title… until some major controversy in the final laps.
A safety car was brought out in the wake of Nicholas Latifi’s shunt, bunching the field up and decimating Hamilton’s lead over Verstappen. At this point though, with just a handful of laps remaining, the title was still his to lose, given that there were five lapped cars between the two drivers. Essentially, when the safety car headed in, Verstappen would still have had to get past the five back-markers before taking on his Mercedes rival.
That was, until the FIA made the decision to remove the lapped cars from the equation just before restarting the race, giving Verstappen the chance to move directly behind Hamilton when the lights went green. Unsurprisingly, given he was on fresher tyres, it then didn’t take much for the Red Bull man to get through – going on to win his first ever world title.
As you can expect, that was just the start of the controversy, with plenty happening off-track in the hours since.
Hello and welcome to Sportsmail’s live blog in the wake of a pretty remarkable weekend of Formula One action. Most years, the morning after the final race would be very quiet. Some sore heads among the winning teams, and feet up for the others as they look ahead to a few weeks off between seasons. This year, though, it’s anything but. Let me explain…
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