The FIA did not accept the second protest from Mercedes regarding the restart after the Safety Car in the Abu Dhabi race and therefore formalized Max Verstappen as the 2021 Formula 1 World Champion. The German team, however, appealed against the decision taken by the F1 Commissioners.
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Max Verstappen is officially the 2021 Formula 1 World Champion. I F1 commissioners in fact, after having rejected the first complaint of the Mercedes regarding the Abu Dhabi race, they have rejected also there second protest filed after Yas Marina’s run from the German team which concerned an alleged irregular restart after the Safety Car regime.
In fact, according to the reasons for the rejection, it would be the Formula 1 regulation itself that would allow the Race Direction to restart the race for the last lap even if all the dubbed drivers had not yet split: “Article 15.3 allows the clerk of the course to control the use of the safety car, which according to our decision includes its deployment and its retirement – the F1 Commissioners write in the note –. This, although Article 48.12 may not have been fully applied in relation to the return of the safety car to the pits at the end of the next lap, Article 48.13 overwrites it and once the ‘safety car on this lap’ message is shown, it is mandatory to remove the safety car at the end of that lap“.
While admitting that the Race Direction has violated article 48.12 of the sporting regulations, so the restart which then led to the overtaking of Verstappen on Hamilton and therefore to the victory of the first World Championship from the Dutchman it would not have been irregular. In fact, with this latest verdict, Verstappen is certified as the new Formula 1 world champion Mercedes has announced that he will not give up and has an appeal has already been lodged on the decision taken by the Stewards leaving open also the possibility of if necessary, also contact the Court of Appeal of the TAS (Sports Arbitration) of Lausanne as announced before the FIA ruling arrived.
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