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2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Race details
Date	12 December 2021
Official name	Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021
Location	Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Distance	58 laps, 306.183 km (190.253 miles)
Podium
First	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing-Honda
Second	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes
Third	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari
Lap leaders

The "Last Lap of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Scandal", also dubbed as the "The Abu Dhabi robbery", "The Abu Dhabi Miracle", "Masigate", "F1 Fixed", by some in the media and social media, was a sporting scandal that occurred at the last lap of the Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021, a Formula 1 motor race held on 12 December 2021 at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

The race ended in confusion when the race director of Formula 1 racing, Michael Masi, made a series of controversial decisions in the last lap of the race, which influenced the outcome of not only the final race win, but also the winner of the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship.

7-time Formula 1 World Champion and the defending World Champion Lewis Hamilton, led the race for 1 hour and 25 minutes, built up a gap of 12.116 seconds, and was expected to comfortably win the race by a wide margin.

However, in the closing stages of the race, decisions made by the race director wiped out Hamilton`s 12-second lead, allowed his title rival and championship contender Max Verstappen to close up behind the race leader, and place him in a position to unexpectedly win the race and the championship, a few seconds before the end of the race.

The actions of race control left observers, TV commentators, Lewis Hamilton, racing engineers, and Mercedes AMG F1 shell-shocked and "absolutely speechless".

The incident has caused a considerable amount of outrage amongst F1 fans and the public, causing F1 fans all over the world to call the outcome of the race “robbery”, "farcical", “unacceptable”, "an absolute disgrace", and "a manipulated” race.

Background

Max Verstappen won his first World Championship, driving for Red Bull Racing-Honda.

Lewis Hamilton, the defending champion, finished runner-up, driving for Mercedes.

The constellation before the last race was title rivals Lewis Hamilton (driving for Mercedes AMG Petronas F1), and Max Verstappen (driving for Red Bull), entering the last round both having 369.5 championship points, making this the first time since 1974, championship contenders were level on points. With both drivers level on points, the driver who scored the most points would win the championship. Prior to this race, as Verstappen had won more races, nine races during the season, while Hamilton won eight, that meant, if both drivers had ended the season with an equal amount in points, Verstappen would have won the championship.

With the bitter rivalry throughout the season, concerns soon emerged that the drivers might cause a deliberate in-race collision, due to several on-track battles Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen had during the season. There was indeed cause for concern, as previous championships between McLaren teammates Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna ended with the former winning the 1989 championship at the 1989 Japanese Grand Prix, and a repeated collision between (now Ferrari driver) Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna the following year ended with the later winning the 1990 championship (once again at the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix). Furthermore, a collision; Michael Schumacher taking out Damon Hill`s Williams at the 1994 Australian Grand Prix, resulted in Hill losing, and Schumacher winning the 1994 Championship.

To prevent a scenario like this from happening again, race director Michael Masi insisted, that if either Verstappen or Hamilton decided to stage a deliberate race-ending collision to win the championship, they could face additional FIA - (The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile; English: International Automobile Federation) sanctions, including point reduction, championship disqualification, or future race bans.

The Race

The race until the final 5 laps

The race started at 17:00 local time on Sunday 12 December 2021 and was up till lap 53, fairly uneventful.

Lewis Hamilton had a very good start, overtaking Max Verstappen before the first corner. Verstappen then attempted to regain his position in the chicane before turn 6. Verstappen's late-breaking forced Hamilton off the track, prompting Hamilton to emerge with a 20-meter gap ahead of Verstappen. Arguing that Hamilton should have given the position back to Verstappen, Red Bull Racing protested against Hamilton cutting the corner. However the Racing stewards ultimately concluded that Lewis Hamilton had given any advantage gained back, and no further investigation was necessary.

The lead drivers pitting elevated Sergio Pérez to first. When Hamilton caught up with Pérez on lap 20; a vigorous defense by Checo enabled Verstappen to close the gap significantly from 11 seconds after his pit stop to 1.3 seconds; although Verstappen was unable to take advantage of it, so that Hamilton was able to extend the gap again to four seconds by the midpoint of the race.

During lap 35, Antonio Giovinazzi retired his car because of gearbox problems, triggering a virtual safety car. Red Bull used this opportunity to swap Verstappen's tyres to a new set of hard compound tyres without losing track position; Mercedes opted not to change their tyres, fearing they might lose 1st place position.

The final 5 laps and the decisions of the race director

On lap 53, Nicholas Latifi crashing into the barriers of turn 14, brought out the safety car. And after the race was restarted, Lewis Hamilton had lost the race in less than 30 seconds, after having led the race for over 1 hour 25 minutes.

Allegations of race-fixing were therefore swiftly uttered after the race, because the race director, appeared not to follow the International Sporting Code and FIA Sporting Regulations to the letter of the law, during the last few laps, leading to the last lap of the race.

The controversy specifically evolved around:

1. allegations that the race director used a safety car period, to engineer a race win for Max Verstappen who was 12 seconds behind the race leader, and suddenly won the race in the last few seconds.
2. Eyebrows were raised in particular because:

   • five lapped cars between Max Verstappen and race leader Lewis Hamilton were asked to move out of the way of Max Verstappen;
   • however, three lapped cars behind Verstappen, including two cars in front of third-placed Carlos Sainz Jr. were asked to remain behind Verstappen and in front of Sainz.

3. Questions were also raised if the race directors' decision to hasten the safety car procedures (reducing car unlapping and ordering the safety car into the pitlane from 2 laps, to only half a lap, while the lapped cars hadn`t even finished unlapping themselves), had placed Max Verstappen in a strong position to overtake Lewis Hamilton in the final lap.

All of the above, which ultimately defined the result of the race, and the outcome of the 2021 Championship, had never happened throughout the entire 70-year history of Formula 1.

Lap 53 analysis

File:F1 Abu Dhabi 2021, lap 53.jpg

Race leaders progress until lap 53

By lap 53, and after a 1 hour, 25-minute race, race leader Lewis Hamilton had acquired a decent lead of approximately 12 seconds over 2nd placed Max Verstappen. In lap 53 however, Williams driver Nicholas Latifi, who was fighting for positions with Haas' Mick Schumacher and went off the circuit at turn 14, crashed into the barriers and triggered a safety car period.

Lap 54 analysis

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, Red Bulls sister team Alpha Tauri`s drivers Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly, as well as McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo, Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll and Haas driver Mick Schumacher then opted to use the Safety car to pit for new (either fresh or fairly new) sets of soft tyres. Mercedes again opted not to pit Lewis Hamilton, because that meant they would have lost the first-placed position if the safety car period hadn't ended.

After the pitstops, the running order of race leader Lewis Hamilton in 1st place and Max Verstappen in 2nd place, (with a first group of lapped cars consisting of Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon, Charles Leclerc, and Sebastian Vettel) in between them; as well as Carlos Sainz Jr. in 3rd place (with a second group of lapped cars consisting of Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll in between him and 2nd place Verstappen, emerged.

File:F1 Abu Dhabi 2021, lap 54.jpg

Race leaders Lewis Hamilton in 1st place, Max Verstappen in 2nd place, and Carlos Sainz Jr. in 3rd place, with a few lapped* cars in between them. (*Lapped cars: Drivers who, although at first sight appear to be racing between the race leader, were however technically slower during the entire course of the race, to the point that they have currently completed 1 lap less, than the race leader.)

Lap 56 analysis

Between lap 55 and lap 56, the official F1 Race directors team message and timing board announced:

1827 LAPPED CARS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO OVERTAKE

This prompted Red Bull team principal Christian Horner to radio the race director Michael Masi:

Christian Horner: “W… W… Why aren’t we getting these… these lapped cars out the way?”

Michael Masi: “Just give me… because Christian… just give me a second… okay… My main… big one is to get this… err… incident clear.”

Horner: “You only need one racing lap.”

Lap 57 analysis

Four minutes later, Michael Masi instructed only the five cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to move out of the way and to unlap themselves.

The official F1 Race directors team message and timing board announced:

1831 LAPPED CARS 4 (NOR) - 14 - 31 - 16 - 5 TO OVERTAKE SAFETY CAR

File:F1 Abu Dhabi 2021, lap 56.jpg

This meant, the 12.116-second gap Hamilton had accumulated throughout the race evaporated, as Verstappen was now only a few milliseconds behind him.

To the surprise of everyone, the race director let the lapped cars behind Verstappen remain in front of 3rd placed Carlos Sainz Jr., as these cars had not been instructed to unlap themselves.

File:F1 Abu Dhabi lap 57.jpg

Also astonishingly, the race director didn`t wait for all lapped cars to catch up to the back of the grid again, and he also didn`t wait, to order the safety car back into the pitlane in the following lap, after the last lap had unlapped themselves, either. The race director instead, after Vettel had overtaken the lead driver, ordered the safety car into the pitlane immediately, to enable a final green-flag lap for a last lap of racing.

The official F1 race controls team message and timing board announced:

1831 SAFETY CAR IN THIS LAP

This prompted heated objections from Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff, as these directives from race control were viewed as controversial. They appeared to contradict the letter of the law; Articles 48.12 and 48.13 of the Formula 1 Sporting Regulation, and also appeared to break Michael Masi`s precedent from previous races.

After the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, race director Michael Masi had made it clear that the reason why the safety car period took very long, was because all lapped cars had to unlap themselves.

”There’s a requirement in the sporting regulations to wave all the lapped cars past,” he told Motorsport Week. "From that point, it was position six onwards that were still running [on the lead lap], so between 10 or 11 cars had to unlap themselves. “Therefore the safety car period was a bit longer than what we would have normally expected.”

Motorsport Week noted, that if the race director had applied the same rule for both races, and all lapped cars were allowed to unlap themselves, there wouldn`t have been enough time for the safety car to leave the track ahead of the final lap.

After announcing the Safety car would be in and only half of the cars unlapping themselves, Toto Wolff exclaimed: “No Michael, no no! That was so not right."

Lap 58 analysis

Four days before the race, Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner had acknowledged they would "need a miracle". These unusual decisions of race control enabled Verstappen to pass Hamilton into turn 5, to take the lead a few seconds before the end of the race, and win the race after Lewis Hamilton had led the race for about 1 hour and 25 minutes.

“Mickey, this isn't right. Michael! What was that?" Toto Wolff protested again after Verstappen overtook Hamilton.

In the end, Hamilton finished second and Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz Jr. finished third, with Verstappen taking the World Drivers' Championship title.

Over the radio broadcast, Toto Wolff urged Masi to reinstate the order of the penultimate lap: "You need to reinstate the lap before, that's not right!”, Wolff exclaimed.

To which Masi retorted:

“Toto, It’s called a motor race, Okay???”

Wolff: “Sorry?”

Masi: “We went car racing.”

Michael Masi`s retort: “Toto, It’s called a motor race, okay? We went car racing!”

The reasoning the race director gave for intervening in the outcome of a race grid in such an unprecedented way, that he wanted “a motor race/ car racing”, raised eyebrows.

However, further analysis by independent observers have called this into question.. Down the field, and looking at the race, apart from Hamilton and Verstappen, the decisions of Michael Masi led to unusual grid constellations.

Furthermore, it appears the race director, might have actually, unwittingly prevented 3 lapped cars to continue motor racing, and protected 5 drivers from getting overtaken, in the last 2 minutes of the race.

Carlos Sainz Jr. last lap analysis

Carlos Sainz Jr., finished the race in third, without any opportunity to race against the 2 leading drivers.

According to 48.12 of the FIA sporting regulations, the race director would have been required to direct the 2 lapped drivers (Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll) between Verstappen and Sainz to overtake the safety car, to give Sainz a fair opportunity to race against the leading cars either Verstappen or, after Verstappen had overtaken Hamilton, to also give Sainz a fair opportunity to also overtake Hamilton, whose tires were in worse shape than Carlos Sainz` tires.

File:Sainz analysis 2.jpg

Correct grid positioning according to 48.12 of the FIA sporting regulations

However, the decisions of race control, not allowing Ricciardo and Stroll to overtake the safety car, unlapping themselves, and requiring Ricciardo and Stroll to stay behind Verstappen and in front of Sainz, meant that Sainz was unable to join the fight for the race win, or at least to race against Verstappen and Hamilton, both of whom the race director had now placed out of reach for Sainz.

File:Sainz analysis.jpg

However, the race director decided to leave two lapped cars in front of Sainz

Team radio messages between Sainz and his race engineer Riccardo Adami show that he was confused that the drivers in front of Verstappen were cleared, but the cars in front of him weren`t cleared and remained in front of him for the rest of the race:

Carlos Sainz Jr.: "...giving massive advantage to some people. What’s happening?”

Ferrari race engineer, Riccardo Adami.: “Lapped cars are unlapping. Safety Car in this lap”.

Carlos Sainz Jr.: “Tell this Aston Martin [Lance Stroll] to unlap himself. What is he doing? What are these two cars doing?”

Carlos Sainz Jr.: “What are these two guys [Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll] doing? They are not unlapping themselves, they need to go.”

Riccardo Adami: “Restart like this. They restart like this. Treat them as lapped cars”

Carlos Sainz Jr.: “Very strange... very unfair".

As Carlos Sainz Jr. was now sandwiched between two lapped drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll's in front of him upon the restart, and three drivers, Yuki Tsunoda, Pierre Gasly, and Valtteri Bottas hunting him down from behind, he stated after the race, that the decision to resume racing sandwiched between lapped drivers with fresh tires in front and drivers with fresh tires behind, "nearly cost him (his) podium".

Daniel Ricciardo`s and Lance Stroll`s last lap analysis

Both Aston Martin and their driver Lance Stroll, as well as McLaren and their driver Daniel Ricciardo, all had the same strategy as Max Verstappen to swap to a set of old tyres, to new tyres in the last few laps to overtake drivers struggling on old tyres in front of them.

This strategy worked well for Max Verstappen, as (with his new, soft tyres) he was easily able to overtake Lewis Hamilton who was still on old, hard tyres.

According to Article 48.12 of the FIA sporting regulations, the race director would have been required to direct the 2 lapped drivers (Ricciardo and Stroll) behind Verstappen and in front of Sainz to overtake the safety car, in order to give Ricciardo and Stroll a fair opportunity to race against Vettel, Leclerc, Ocon, Alonso, and Norris.

File:2nd group, part 2.jpg

Correct grid positioning of lapped cars in 1 group to race each other, according to 48.12 of the FIA sporting regulations

However, the decisions of the race director, not allowing Ricciardo and Stroll to overtake the safety car, unlapping themselves and requiring Ricciardo and Stroll to stay behind Verstappen and in front of Sainz, meant that both Ricciardo and Stroll were now unable to race against Vettel, Leclerc, Ocon, Alonso, and Norris, all of whom the race director had now unwittingly placed out of reach for both Stroll and Ricciardo to race.

File:2nd group.jpg

However, the race director decided to place the two race leaders in between the lapped cars

For the drivers with the old, hard tyres, Vettel, Leclerc, Ocon, Alonso, and Norris, the decision of the race director effectively protected them from getting overtaken by faster cars, and therefore gave them a huge reprieve and a massive advantage, as it ensured that they would be able to comfortably finish the race, without needing to defend against cars with fresh, faster tyres behind them.

Daniel Ricciardo, who was behind Verstappen during the safety car period and was not permitted to unlap himself, was communicating his confusion on his team radio to his race engineer:

“I’ve got no idea what they did with letting cars through. Obviously, I wasn’t really in that anyway, but it seems strange.”

Returning to parc ferme at the end of the race Ricciardo added:

“Alrighty. Cheers guys. I’m glad I’m not a part of that - whatever just happened. It seemed pretty f***ed up”.

Lance Stroll was also one of the drivers who wasn’t allowed to unlap himself, meaning he lost out any chance of fighting for a top 10 finish on the final lap. The decisions of the race director left Lance Stroll and his Race Engineer Ben Michell on team radio struggling to understand how to approach the race restart.

Lance Stroll: “Er… There`s cars overtaking the safety car?"

Ben Michell: “No. Not us, not us. Stay where you are, stay where you are. Cars behind will have blue flags.”

Lance Stroll: “I don’t understand, why I shouldn’t be able to overtake the safety car.”

...

Ben Michell: “Ok, Lance. That is chequered flag, that is chequered flag. We will explain what happened later”

Lance Stroll: “Yeah man, what the f**ck?!?!?!”

Engineer: “We will explain later.”

Mick Schumacher`s last lap analysis

Mick Schumacher was in front of Nicolas Latifi before Latifi crashed in lap 53. Team Haas immediately pitted Mick Schumacher for a set of scrubbed, almost new set of soft tyres a lap later in lap 54. Mick Schumacher emerged in 15th and then 14th after a gearbox problem ended Sergio Perez` race. At this time (although lapped, 1 lap behind) he was behind 3rd placed Carlos Sainz Jr., 4th placed Valtteri Bottas, and in front of 5th placed Yuki Tsunoda and 6th placed Pierre Gasly who had to pit one lap after his teammate Tsunoda.

According to FIA sporting regulations, Mick Schumacher would have gained a lot of places. The race director would have been required to direct lapped Mick Schumacher to overtake the leading drivers Bottas, Sainz, Verstappen, Hamilton, and the safety car, to rejoin directly behind the group of lapped cars, and emerging behind Lance Stroll, Daniel Ricciardo, Sebastian Vettel, Charles Leclerc, Esteban Ocon, Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris, to give Schumacher on his two laps almost new, soft tyres, a prime opportunity to race against the other lapped cars, all of them on older tyres.

File:2nd group, part 2.jpg

All lapped cars sorted out in correct order and grid positioning, according to Art. 48.12 Sporting Regulation

However, due to the decisions of race control, Mick Schumacher remained stuck behind the race leaders, and finished the race behind Stroll and Ricciardo, without any opportunity to improve his position and without any possibility to race against Vettel, Leclerc or Ocon on old tyres.

File:2nd group.jpg

However, the race director decided to place the two race leaders in between the lapped cars

The decisions of race control effectively moved Max Verstappen forward to place him in a better overtaking position and helped Max Verstappen on new soft tyres overtaking Lewis Hamilton, who was struggling on old tyres. However, the race director impeded Daniel Ricciardo, Lance Stroll, and Mick Schumacher on new soft tyres, not only from overtaking Sebastian Vettel, Charles Leclerc or Esteban Ocon, who were also struggling on old tyres, but also didn`t place them in a favourable position, which they would have been entitled to according to Art. 48.12 of the Sporting Regulation.

That means, it appears that, on that last lap, there was no motor racing for Daniel Ricciardo, Lance Stroll and Mick Schumacher.

Out of 14 drivers who ended the race, it turned out, the only drivers who were able to overtake and improve their positions in the last lap, were all Red Bull drivers:

1. Red Bull driver Max Verstappen was able to overtake Lewis Hamilton for the win of the race and championship.
2. Red Bull sister team, Alpha Tauri driver Yuki Tsunoda, was able to overtake Valtteri Bottas, in the last lap.
3. Red Bull sister team, Alpha Tauri driver Pierre Gasly, was able to overtake (lapped) Mick Schumacher and then Valtteri Bottas, in the last lap.

It seems, by excluding the third-place competitor, and those that had been released from behind the safety car, they were impeded from fair participation and denied the opportunity to improve their final position in the race. The race director`s instructions in the last lap, appear to have been only a motor race for some drivers, to the exclusion of other drivers.

Alleged rule breaks

The race director, Michael Masi, allegedly broke three rules.

Article 1 of the FIA International Sporting Code

Article 1.1.1

"The FIA shall be the sole international sporting authority entitled to make and enforce regulations based on the fundamental principles of safety and sporting fairness, for the encouragement and control of automobile Competitions, and to organise FIA International Championships."

Article 1.2.3

"It will never be enforced so as to prevent or impede a Competition or the participation of a Competitor, save where the FIA concludes that this is necessary for the safe, fair or orderly conduct of motor sport."

By appearing to exclude the third-placed competitor Carlos Sainz Jr. from joining the 2 lead drivers to race for 1st or 2nd place, and by appearing to exclude Daniel Ricciardo, Lance Stroll, and Mick Schumacher from racing the other lapped cars, critics have alleged that the race director impeded these drivers from fair participation and denied the opportunity to improve their final position in the race.

Article 48.12 of the FIA Sporting Regulation

“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."

“Having overtaken the cars on the lead lap and the safety car these cars should then proceed around the track at an appropriate speed, without overtaking, and make every effort to take up position at the back of the line of cars behind the safety car."

"Unless the clerk of the course considers the presence of the safety car is still necessary, 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 instructions by the Race Control appeared to contravene Article 48.12:

• The race director allowed only the first five cars, instead of the eight lapped cars, to overtake. Critics have called this unusual.

• The last lapped car was Mick Schumacher`s car. The last lapped car did not pass the leader,

• nor did the safety car return at the end of the following lap. the safety car returned to the pits while the first lapped car was still in the process of unlapping itself.

It thus seems like the race director hurriedly skimped through the safety car procedures in the regulation, to get one final lap of racing for two drivers at the front, at the expense of the remaining drivers behind.

Legal proceedings

Mercedes' post-race protests

For these reasons, Mercedes filed a formal protest after the race, against the result of the race, asserting:

• Verstappen had overtaken Hamilton at the end of the safety car period, and
• Masi failed to follow safety car procedures. By only allowing the five cars directly in front of Verstappen to unlap themselves, but not providing any opportunity for the three other cars in front of Sainz to unlap themselves, as directed by regulations, race control had contravened the F1 Sporting Regulations,
• and that the restart should have occurred the following lap after all cars had been allowed to unlap themselves, and therefore the result of the race had been invalid.

The first point was quickly dismissed because Verstappen had only had a few centimeters of his front wing ahead of Hamilton's for a very short time at the end of the safety car period, which technically wasn`t an overtake.

As for the second issue, Mercedes argued, that if a signal is issued for lapped cars to overtake, then according to Article 48.12 all lapped cars must unlap, and that the safety car must wait until the end of the following lap to return to the pit area. Mercedes pointed out, Hamilton would have won the race and the championship, if this process had been followed, and the classification should be altered accordingly.

Red Bull`s counter-argument

According to Red Bull,

• Article 15.3 gives the race director overriding authority over the use, deployment, and withdrawal of the safety car;
• Article 48.13, which governs the withdrawal of the safety car, overrides Article 48.12;

Furthermore, RedBull contended:

• that "any", does not mean "all", therefore not all cars were required to lap the race leaders under Article 48.12; and
• the result of the race wouldn`t have changed anyway if all nine lapped cars had been allowed to unlap.

The race directors argument

The race director stated:

• the teams had agreed that, where possible, they would highly prefer for the race to finish under "green" racing, instead of ending under a safety car.
• In his view, Article 48.13 applied in this case because the purpose of Article 48.12 was to remove lapped cars that would "interfere" with the race between the leading cars.

The Racing Stewards ruling

The FIA stewards comprising of Gary Connelly, Felix Holter, Mohamed Al Hashmi, as well as the Driver Steward Derek Warwick based their decisions on Articles 15.3; 48.12, and 48.13 of the the Formula 1 Sporting regulations:

The clerk of the course shall work in permanent consultation with the Race Director. The Race Director shall have overriding authority in the following matters and the clerk of the course may give orders in respect of them only with his express agreement: ... e) The use of the safety car.

---

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. ...

Having overtaken the cars on the lead lap and the safety car these cars should then proceed around the track at an appropriate speed, without overtaking, and make every effort to take up position at the back of the line of cars behind the safety car. ... Unless the clerk of the course considers the presence of the safety car is still necessary, once the last lapped car has passed the leader the safety car will return to the pits at the end of the following lap.

---

When the clerk of the course decides it is safe to call in the safety car the message "SAFETY CAR IN THIS LAP" will be sent to all Competitors via the official messaging system and the car's orange lights will be extinguished. This will be the signal to the Competitors and drivers that it will be entering the pit lane at the end of that lap. At this point the first car in line behind the safety car may dictate the pace and, if necessary, fall more than ten car lengths behind it. ... As the safety car is approaching the pit entry the SC boards will be withdrawn and, other than on the last lap of the sprint qualifying session or the race, as the leader approaches the Line the yellow flags will be withdrawn and a green flag and/or green light panel will be displayed at the Line.

— Articles 15.13, 48.12, and 48.13, 2021 Formula One Sporting Regulations

and ultimately rejected the Mercedes protest citing that the "overriding authority" remains with the race director according to articles 48.13 and 15.3 of the F1 sporting regulations, and he has the right to make any rule regarding safety car procedure as he sees fit. Moreover, announcing Hamilton the winner for leading the race at lap 57, one lap before the end of the race would essentially shorten the race.

Verstappen was therefore provisionally confirmed as the world champion, pending any appeal.

Mercedes appeal

Mercedes lodged their intention to appeal to the FIA's International Court of Appeal citing breaches of Article 15 of the International Sporting Code and Article 10 of the FIA's Judicial and Disciplinary Code. The team had 96 hours after the race concluded to decide whether they wish to take the matter further.

However on 16 December 2021, Mercedes decided not to go forward with their appeal, in response to the FIA's announcement that it would perform a "detailed analysis and clarification exercise" of the incident, and its admission that the controversy was "tarnishing the image" of the sport.

In an interview Wolff, said that Mercedes would have been "almost guaranteed" a win had their Abu Dhabi GP case hearing been inside a regular court, however taking the case in front of the FIA court would be like marking their homework.

While Wolff remained critical of Masi's approach, especially citing Masi's decision in Abu Dhabi as being inconsistent with another decision Masi made at the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix, in which Masi had previously noted all cars must unlap to extend the safety car period; Wolff clarified that neither he, nor Lewis Hamilton had any interest to be awarded the World Championship in a courtroom, and their wish is rather to ensure that FIA followed up with their detailed analysis and clarification exercise of the incident.

Aftermath

Reactions from current or former drivers, engineers, team members, managers

Reactions questioning race controls decisions

With exception of the race winner, the majority of FIA drivers or ex drivers confirmed that the race director handled the restart was on a spectrum between "confusing" and "not correct", "not by the book", or that it was done for "TV entertainment" purposes.

Lewis Hamilton

In a radio message in the last Hamilton exclaimed: "This is getting manipulated, man", to his race engineer Peter Bonnington.

After crossing the finish line Bonnington still shocked about what had just happened told Hamilton: "I'm just speechless Lewis, absolutely speechless".

Carlos Sainz Jr.

Carlos Sainz Jr. who was sandwiched between two lapped drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll's cars upon the restart, and three drivers, Yuki Tsunoda, Pierre Gasly, and Valtteri Bottas hunting him down from behind, he stated that the decision to resume racing sandwiched between lapped drivers with fresh tyres in front and drivers with fresh tyres behind, "nearly cost him (his) podium".

"It was certainly a very strange situation for me," said Sainz. "At the beginning, I was told they were not going to be allowed to unlap themselves, the people in front of me. Then it was decided to unlap themselves, and some people unlapped themselves, but there was still, I think it was an Aston Martin [Stroll] and a McLaren of [Daniel] Ricciardo, between the two leaders and myself. And this I’ve never had before, having to restart the race with these two guys in front of me, and while fighting for a P3. I do believe it was a strange one, and maybe something to look at because it was very strange to see, and it nearly cost me my podium, to be honest."

Lando Norris

Lando Norris, who was the first of the drivers permitted to unlap themselves, and ultimately finished 7th in the race, remarked that the decision to race again on the last lap was made "for TV".

"I didn't actually know it was only like the first three or four [five] up to Max," said Norris. "But they said that they're not gonna let us pass. So I'm guessing that was a message to say, they were just not going to let us pass at all. But then to suddenly do it just for the final lap, and for a one lap shootout, then I'm a bit surprised. So it was obviously made to be a fight, it was for the TV of course, it was for the result. Whether or not it was fair, is not up to me to decide."

Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso, the 2nd of the drivers of the lapped drivers in the pack, ultimately finished 8^th. During the safety car was communicating with his race engineer Karel Loos:

Fernando Alonso: "Yeah we should unlap, and get this job done. Until they retire the car. If not it gonna be too late. they need to start the procedure now. So..."

Karel Loos: "Three laps remaining."

Fernando Alonso: "Yeah come on. the... the unlap. The guys."

Karel Loos: "So... eh... he`s not gonna allow us to unlap ourselves.”

Fernando Alonso: (with a sarcastic laugh). “Hahaha ha, understood.”

Karel Loos: “Ok, so we’ve got Verstappen in P2. He’s about four cars behind you.”

Fernando Alonso: “Yep, and he should be two cars in front of me.”

Karel Loos: "2 laps remaining."

Fernando Alonso: "Safety car has green light..."

Karel Loos: "Yup so you can overtake... overtake."

Fernando Alonso: "Yeah... but this has to be done a few laps ago... Unbelievable!"

He added his thoughts about the confusion at the sudden instruction for only a few cars, but not all cars to unlap themselves:

"When the safety car was out I thought we were able to overtake quickly, because normally it is what happens," Alonso said. "You see the green light of the safety car, and then you are unlapping yourself until they remove the car. But we didn’t have that green signal, and then two laps after the engineer told me that you will not be able to unlap yourself, and the positions would stay like this. One corner later the green light came on and I said, ‘But we have a green light?’ And they said, ‘Yeah, yeah, you can do it now, follow Norris.’ And I followed Norris. So it was a little bit confusing”.

Regarding the race director creating the last lap shootout, Alonso told Dutch TV station Ziggo Sport.

"That was pure luck, we have to be honest about that."

Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc, the fourth of the drivers of the other drivers in the pack, who ultimately finished 10^th, said:

"For me, it was a bit weird because I was a bit in the middle of nowhere. We could overtake the leaders I think for just like a lap before restarting, and we were in the middle of nowhere. I was just fighting for the ninth place with Esteban, I think, just in front. But first I was told I would not be able to unlap myself, at the end at the last moment we actually had the opportunity to unlap ourselves. So yeah, it was a bit of a strange one”.

Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel, the fifth of the drivers of the other drivers in the pack, who ultimately finished 10^th, questioned his race engineer, Tim Wright, during the race, about what was going on:

Sebastian Vettel: "If Michael wants to get this race restarted, he should let us through."
Tim Wright: Lapped cars will not be allowed to overtake.

Sebastian Vettel: "But, I`m lapped to Verstappen behind me. So that's basically blue flags as soon as we go?"

Tim Wright: "Yeah... confirm... confirm.

Sebastian Vettel: "Just let us through and start the race. I don`t understand why he is not letting us through. He`s just pacing this thing out.

And during the cool-down lap Vettel asked his race engineer:

"Why did they not let us go straightaway? This is what I still don’t understand... anyways... thank you I tried"

In an interview after the race Vettel remarked, he got the message to unlap himself very late:

"...very late, but I think too late, they should let us pass straight away like other times. And obviously, you have the guys fighting in the front. So you've just got to clear the path. I don't know what it was. For us it was a shame because we didn't have a race then, because everything was spread out" he said.

However, he later also defended Masi and the stewards, commenting:

"Everyone has an opinion, I think leave the stewards alone, it's tough enough as it is. Ideally we'd like more consistency but there's also a human side, so it's probably difficult to get it 100 per cent right, but it has to be our target, so we need to see what we can improve."

Daniel Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo, who was immediately behind Verstappen during the safety car period and was not permitted to unlap himself, was communicating his confusion to on his team radio to his race engineer:

“I’ve got no idea what they did with letting cars through. Obviously, I wasn’t really in that anyway, but it seems strange.”

Returning to parc ferme at the end of the race Ricciardo added:

“Alrighty. Cheers guys. I’m glad I’m not a part of that - whatever just happened. It seemed pretty f***ed up”.

In an interview after the race, he noted he was "speechless" at the instruction, especially as the decision of the race director did not allow him to also race the five-car pack, while he was on newer soft-compound tyres.

"I was confused because I got that message that they won't overtake," said Ricciardo. “Through my head I thought, 'That seems okay,' like I guess, fair, because Lewis had such a lead and Max has newer tyres, in this way he has to cut through a few cars if they're going to restart the race.

"Then I saw some cars overtake so I asked, 'What do I do, do I pass?,' and then I think Tom (Ricciardo` s race engineer Tom Stallard) said 'No, you have to stay here.' "So I've literally got front row seats for the last lap. And I'm also on a new soft, or a newer soft, so I was like, 'Do I pass both of them?'"

"I'm honestly a bit speechless, I don't know what to make of that. I really don't. I need to see how it all came about."

Lance Stroll

Lance Stroll was one of the drivers who wasn’t allowed to unlap himself, meaning he lost out any chance of fighting for a top 10 finish on the final lap. The decisions of race control left Lance Stroll and his Race Engineer Ben Michell on team radio struggling to understand how to approach the race restart.

Lance Stroll: “Er… There`s cars overtaking the safety car?"

Ben Michell: “No. Not us, not us. Stay where you are, stay where you are. Cars behind will have blue flags.”

Lance Stroll: “I don’t understand, why I shouldn’t be able to overtake the safety car.”

...

Ben Michell: “Ok, Lance. That is chequered flag, that is chequered flag. We will explain what happened later”

Lance Stroll: “Yeah man, what the f**ck?!?!?!”

Engineer: “We will explain later.”

In an interview after the race, Stroll explained:

“It was a tricky race today and we were not able to benefit from the late Safety Car, because we were not waved through to overtake, which was frustrating and I did not understand,” Stroll remarked. "It was a late chance to make up some places and potentially aim for points after we made the decision to pit again.”

George Russell

Williams F1 driver George Russell who didn`t finish the race and retired earlier due to a gearbox failure, called the last lap decisions by the Race Director, Micheal Masi "what just happened is absolutely unacceptable. I cannot believe what we’ve just seen".

Alain Prost

Former Formula 1 driver and 4-time 1985, 1986, 1989, and 1993 World Champion Alain Prost reflected on the decisions by the race director in an exclusive interview with RacingNews365.com:

"What happened, for sure, was not very correct – that is obvious. Sometimes, you have a decision to make, because of television and other things, and obviously what Michael wanted to do is what all the teams ask very often – we don't want to finish a race anymore under the Safety Car... but, for sure, on the sporting side, it was not very correct."

Damon Hill

1996 F1 World Champion Damon Hill remarked that the decision making appeared without precedent, noting:

"This is a new way of running the sport where the Race Director can make these ad hoc decisions. Its been a bit too 'guess what I'm going to do now"

Nico Rosberg

2016 F1 World Champion Nico Rosberg felt that Masi "did not follow the rules", and said that Christian Horner demanding "one more lap of racing" to Masi via radio was inappropriate. But he also sympathised with Masi, commenting: "He's got the whole world watching and he has to decide in the next 15 seconds what he’s doing."

Juan Pablo Montoya

Former Formula 1 driver and 7 time F1 race winner, Juan Pablo Montoya gave a video interview on Motorsport.com:

"I know they wanted to get the race restarted. If you wanted to see a race on the on the green at the end of the race, that was better for the show, they should have gone with red flags straight away as soon as Latifi crashed. Pull out the red flag and get three laps of racing, instead of putting themselves in a bad situation, where they they call the rules however they see fit, and Max and Red Bull took full advantage of it." "They did an amazing job, and Max did whatever he needed to do to win the championship, but at the same time, uh, I think the that's the reason Mercedes is trying to appeal the decisions, because in a way they're right. They're absolutely right, because if you read the rule book it says, that all cars need to be waived. So why do you only wave the front two cars? Is Carlos not part of the race, running 3rd? How does that work?"

He continued:

"I think in a way for Lewis it was really unfair with what the stewards did, and how they handled the race. So a lot of people are saying "We miss Charlie [former F1 race director Charlie Whiting]... they were not counting on a one lap restart."

"If you are involved in F1 or you're a former Formula 1 driver you have a lot of questions. You see a lot of drivers. Everybody is like `Why? What happened here? Why are you only waving the people between the two guys? Why are we not all getting the right position?`"

"So they compromised just to put a good show at the end of the race, and honestly you shouldn't do that, uh, but they did, and Red Bull took a full advantage of it."

Stefan Johansson

Former Formula 1 driver for Ferrari, McLaren, and Ligier, and 12-time podium finisher Stefan Johansson reflected about the race on his blog page:

"... my prediction was that the race would not be decided between the drivers but rather by race control, making yet another random call, as we have now seen far too often in the past seasons. This last race was just the culmination of a series of incredibly bad calls that somehow seem to have escalated as the year went on... the decisions Masi made make no sense on any level. His decision completely ignored any level of common sense as to what would have been a fair way to handle the situation. The only way it should have been done was by doing what you’d normally do and indeed what he did in the race prior. As soon as they deployed the safety car with five laps to go they should have red-flagged the race. Making the decisions he did and then changing his mind completely at the very last moment absolutely handed the race on a plate to Max and Red Bull after Lewis had done a flawless race."

He continued:

"I appreciate that race control is under a huge amount of pressure and the decisions must be made within a very short time frame, but the job of being race director is not for the faint of heart and it obviously takes a pretty special character, with a deep understanding of the dynamics of racing both from a driver’s perspective and from a team perspective. I don’t know much about the background of Masi, but it’s clear to me that he lacks a fundamental understanding of the basic dynamics of wheel-to-wheel racing and what is acceptable as far as racing lines go. Some of the moves in the past four races were disturbing and it’s hard to watch this happening in F1, which is meant to be the pinnacle of Motor Sports. Charlie [Whiting] (ex-race director) had been around the block a few times and knew every trick in the book, there’s just no way he would have allowed things to escalate to the point where we are now where every race seems to end up in controversy of some kind."

Karun Chandhok

Former Formula 1 driver (now TV Analyst) Karun Chandhok, the direction from race control was "confusing" as first they stated that lapped cars will not be allowed to overtake the safety car at which time Lewis Hamilton wasn`t able to change his tyres anymore, before changing their minds and the Race Control said some lapped cars were allowed to overtake the safety car.

David Coulthard

Former Formula 1 Williams, McLaren and Red Bull driver and 13-time race winner, David Coulthard, now Channel 4 TV Commentator and Analyst, noted on a "BBC Breakfast" interview the next morning, that the safety car led to "a sequence of events that none of us have seen before."

Christijan Albers

Former Dutch Formula 1 driver Christijan Albers commented that this was not the only "confused call" by Michael Masi:

“Masi seemed a bit insecure during some races,” he told De Telegraaf. “I also thought he sometimes made confused decisions. But now the emphasis is on that last round in Abu Dhabi. He played a decisive role there. And you don’t want that, because you want the championship to be decided in a beautiful and fair way.“ “In Abu Dhabi, in my view, Masi made a mistake by only allowing the five cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to unlap themselves", he continued. "So, I understand that Mercedes and Hamilton feel robbed."

Hans-Joachim Stuck

German former March and Brabham Formula 1 driver Hans-Joachim Stuck gave his opinion about the controversy in an exclusive interview with Eurosport Germany:

"First of all one clearly has to say that there is a need for action in the ranks of the FIA. This mess is not worthy of a world championship fight in Formula 1. The fact that Mr. Masi allows the lapped cars to un-lap themselves on the last lap is nice for the fans and for Max Verstappen, who was given another chance, but the regulations state that lapped cars must first reconnect to the rear before the race can be restarted. These are all decisions that nobody can understand anymore, for me there is no stringency in them.”

Asked about the expectation of F1 and fans to end the race under a Safety Car, the German concluded.

“That is all well and good – but then he should have done it right. only It should have happened earlier. Just like the last race in Saudi Arabia, in Abu Dhabi ad hoc decisions have been made, that were just insane. The rule interpretation was a joke. That will not do. You have to make sure that there are reasonable decisions that comply with the rules and are then used exactly as they are. Verstappen owes the title to Masi. Without the race director’s decision, he would never have been able to drive past Hamilton. You have to see it that way.”

John Watson

In an interview with RacingNews365.com Former Formula 1 driver and 5-time Grand Prix winner John Watson weighed in:

"I understand that it would have been awful way to end the championship, if it finished under a Safety Car. But there were potentially other options, of which one, I understand, would have been to red flag it immediately, then everybody could have come into the pits, could have reloaded on fresh rubber, and restarted the race." "At least that would have been a level playing field for everybody, but the way that it unfolded made it an unlevel playing field for Lewis, and a much more favourable one for Red Bull and for Max."

Speaking of Lewis Hamilton he acknowledged

"Cheated is not the right word, but he was done out of the championship by the actions of the Race Director."

Peter Windsor

Former Williams team manager and current F1 analyst Peter Windsor have his views on the race in his weekly YouTube video analysis, in a 7 part YouTube video series.

Regarding the controversy, he was unhappy with how race control, handled the legal issues, and questioned the "overriding authority" of a race director, and "how much he can play around with safety car regulations":

"Art 15.3; 48.12 and 48.13", he explained, "are all written chronologically, follow sequentially and logically top of one another and because of that they are phrased as directives and are prohibitive regulations, as distinct from variables that the race director can play around with".

"There's no doubt that according to the regulations, and the more you read them the more you see it, there was a massive mistake made in that closing lap of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. There's no way in the world that race should have been restarted by the safety car coming in, because there were two options:

- either Michael Masi, I guess is where you could say he has overriding control, he could correctly have said because of the time factor, because we want to get this race finished there will be no unlapping by the later cars. They'll all stay in the track position they are

- or he could have said we will have all the lap cars unlapping themselves and it will be a safety car finish but he did he actually went down the middle there and split it between the two and that's what this contention is all about"

Johnny Herbert

Former Formula 1 driver and 3-time Grand Prix winner, Johnny Herbert wrote in a column for "The Times":

"The FIA got it wrong and Lewis Hamilton was robbed of winning his eighth world championship title"

He continued:

"FIA got it wrong, and it’s very simple. In the past, when the safety car is going to come in, all the lapped cars have been allowed to pass, not just a couple. I suppose it was all a rush to try and make this a one lap race. But it was wrong and unfair because Lewis did absolutely nothing wrong whatsoever. Red Bull had to try and play, going in to the pits for fresh tyres. But for the FIA, and especially Michael [Masi, FIA race director], to muck it up so badly, just put a bad taste in your mouth once the chequered flag had gone."

Regarding the unconventional, speeded-up safety car procedure at the end of the Herbert cautioned:

“The FIA needs to have a hard think about how it operates Grands Prix. This should never have happened and it should never happen again.”

Martin Brundle

Three days after the race, former Formula 1 driver and current Sky Sports F1 commentator Martin Brundle, expressed his thoughts in a SkySports column, and laid out that the race director could have chosen two options:

"In hindsight, this should have been a red flag so that everyone could reset", he wrote. "The track could be cleared, and we'd have a straight final championship duel on matching tyres from a standing start. However, that would set a precedent for more red flags in the future."

He continued:

"Nobody wants to see a safety-car finish to any GP but there's a procedure laid out where on the last lap the safety car can take to the pitlane and without any further overtaking the field can take the chequered flag. This generates all the right images without a road car with flashing lights apparently winning the race."

However, Brundle also explained that he is neither making any accusations, nor is he sympathizing with anyone and that Michael Masi`s tough job was made harder by the F1 teams themselves:

“I can understand why Mercedes and team Hamilton feel aggrieved, just as Red Bull would have done if the race finished behind the safety car.”

Narain Karthikeyan

Former Formula 1 driver Narain Karthikeyan, bemoaned the unfairness of the procedure:

"How the entire situation unfolded, it seemed like they wanted Max to win. It was a great battle for the championship but what happened yesterday it wasn't sport. You need close battles in Formula 1 but it has to be fair at the same time... What happened was not fair."

With regards to the race director Michael Masi, he added that the calls were made under tremendous pressure and "it went terribly wrong".

Walter Röhrl

German rally legend, 2-time WRC World Rally Champion, and former Le Mans endurance race winner champion, Walter Röhrl, joined drivers and ex drivers critical of the way Michael Masi and the stewards handled race drama and aftermath of the final laps of the Abu Dhabi race.

"I now know, that in future I don't have to waste a minute watching a Formula 1 race on television. I`d rather save it from fooling myself," he commented in an interview with the Straubinger Tagblatt.

He also called for races to be decided on the track or in a "fair, clear process that is not influenced by any opaque external decisions".

Sébastien Ogier

FIA WRC driver and 8-time WRC Champion Sébastien Ogier didn`t mince words:

"Hamilton was robbed, let's not be afraid to say it. Even though I have a lot of respect for Max Verstappen, he had a great season but on the last weekend...Lewis dominated the race, he was ahead until the end. And unfortunately for him, a few laps from the finish, there is this famous safety car. One or the other, they were beautiful champions but on the physiognomy of this weekend, it is theft. And it's hard to swallow for Hamilton.

Nyck de Vries

Dutch Formula 1 reserve driver Nyck de Vries in an interview remarked, although Verstappen deserved the title,

"they [FIA race control] made some decisions that were not by the book and actually came as a surprise, and that ultimately deprived him [Lewis Hamilton] of the championship.

Social Media & Tabloids questioning race control

The incident caused a considerable amount of outrage amongst F1 fans and the public, causing F1 fans all over the world to call the outcome of the race “robbery”, "farcical", “unacceptable”, "an absolute disgrace", and "a manipulated” race.

The controversy has been described by the international press as “one of the biggest sporting scandals in history”.

Within seconds of the race ending, social media exploded.

Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team

"There are no words."

Susie Wolff

Susie Wolff, CEO of Formula E team Venturi Racing and ex-Formula 1 test driver for Williams:

“What happened is still hard to comprehend and leaves me with a sick feeling. “Not the losing...but the way in which Lewis was robbed has left me in utter disbelief. The decision of one person within the governing body who applied a rule in a way which has never been done before in F1 single-handedly decided the F1 drivers’ world championship. Rules are rules, they can’t be changed on a whim by one individual at the end of a race.”

Nicolas Hamilton

Nicolas Hamilton, British racing driver and younger brother of Lewis Hamilton:

"The FIA broke their own rules, which is a disgrace to our whole sport. Nevertheless, regardless of being mistreated today, the Hamilton’s were humble in defeat. My father, the guy who raised us, congratulating Max & his father Jos."

Alexander Rossi

Alexander Rossi, IndyCar driver:

"Obviously @Max33Verstappen deserved it just as much this year, buttttt I don’t love any of the way that went down."

William Darrell Wallace Jr. ("Bubba Wallace")

William Darrell Wallace Jr. (also known as Bubba Wallace), Nascar driver and race winner:

"Wtf was that?!?"

James Hinchcliffe

James Hinchcliffe, Canadian IndyCar driver, and 6-time race winner:

“Man, racing is wild when Netflix is making the calls”

Danica Patrick

Danica Patrick, American race car driver and IndyCar race winner (responding to James Hinchcliffe):

" totally! Def didn’t seem fair but exciting to watch!"

JJ Watt

JJ Watt, American Football/ NFL player:

"that was insanity"

Heather Watson

Heather Watson, British Tennis player:

"I’m no F1 expert, but @LewisHamilton was robbed… what on earth just happened!?"

Gary Lineker

Gary Lineker, English former professional footballer, and current BBC Sports presenter:

"What a joke. That stinks."

"Imagine Man City and Liverpool going toe to toe for the title. On the last day of the season they meet & City are 3 up with just minutes to go. The referee decides it would be more exciting to have a penalty shootout. What’s more the City players have to be barefooted. That’s @F1"

Harry Kane

Harry Kane, English Football player:

"I’m new to F1 and it’s been amazing to watch Lewis and Max battle it out. I’m no expert on it but I feel like there’s some bizarre rules that give an unfair advantage like today ? Why should Hamilton be penalised for somebody else’s crash?"

Jermaine Jenas

Jermaine Jenas, retired professional English football player and BBC host:

"You know what as much as I love @F1 there’s so much crap they need to sort out! That was a complete robbery for @LewisHamilton"

Usman Khawaja

Usman Khawaja, Australian Cricket player:

"That is the biggest mistake in F1 history."

Tim Bresnan

Tim Bresnan, English Cricket player:

"I like both drivers and both teams. But surely that wasn't right. Speechless"

Martin Lewis

- Martin Lewis, Founder of MoneySavingsExpert.com:

"That was incredible. Doesn't seem fair. @LewisHamilton will feel robbed, so far ahead, then penalised due to the safety car and seemingly arbitrary decisions (feels a bit like politics right now) Unbelievable. #formule1"

Rob Myers

Rob Myers, Twitter Formula 1 blogger:

"I was prepared to give Verstappen his due if he won today. Not like this. This is a disgrace. Absolutely disgusting. Totally manufactured. Sickening. I have no words".

"Masi makes the rules up as he goes along. Why bother with all of the sporting and technical regulations when you have a Race Director who does whatever he likes? Farcical...".

Kevin Clark

Kevin Clark, Journalist & Sports Video Podcaster from "The Ringer" Sports website:

"F1 is finally appealing to America by learning from the most popular American sports and making up literally every rule as they go along."

Adil Ray

Adil Ray, British actor, radio presenter, writer, and comedian:

"It`s like a football team winning 5:0, it comes to the last minute of the game, there is an injury by a player or spectator, the game gets stopped. It gets restarted, and it`s `next goal wins`".

Dan Walker

Dan Walker, English journalist, newsreader, and BBC Breakfast TV Host:

"Whoever you wanted to win… that is an absolute farce of a finish #F1Finale"

Ed Aarons

Ed Aarons, Deputy News Editor Guardian Sports:

"What a farce in the F1 by the way. Talk about manufacturing drama…"

Jeremy Clarkson

Jeremy Clarkson, English broadcaster, journalist, and writer:

"That stewards’ decision is wrong." "Delighted with the result but the stewards need to be banned. We’ve had enough of them."

Piers Morgan

Piers Morgan, English journalist, and television host:

"I don't know what I've just watched but it can't be right. Hamilton's been robbed, surely?"

Nick Knowles

Nick Knowles, English television presenter:

"It was ruined by the FIA and Michael Masi That was the most manipulated result in the history of F1 Congrats to Max who is a great driver and Red bull a great team but this race and championship will be remembered for how the win was manufactured by officials Mercedes are right"

Dan Amenyah

Dan Amenyah, FIFA football streamer:

“Tell them lapped cars are NOT allowed to overtake”... “Now tell them they can ”

Rick Allen

Rick Allen NASCAR commentator:

"Unbelievable how they changed the rules at the end of the race!"

The online controversy surrounding this scandal has been fierce; with some tweets accusing the FIA of "blatant corruption", and alleging that "F1’s desperation for drama saw rules bent in attempt to ‘contrive’ reality TV finish", with dismayed F1 fans generating hashtags such as "#Masigate", "#F1Fixed", "F1xed", "#LewisWasRobbed", on Twitter, Reddit and TikTok in the aftermath of the controversy.

Since the conclusion of the race and the championship, F1 fans have lost trust in the governing body of Formula 1. This became especially clear following a statement the FIA`s World Motor Sport Council released four days after the race in which the FIA appeared to imply that the events during the last lap of the race, had "notably generated significant misunderstanding and reactions from Formula 1 teams, drivers and fans".

The presumed lack of further details into inquiries, about how this scandal was allowed to happen, and a perceived absence of willingness to resolve this matter quickly, has been met with bitter resentment. As a consequence, there have been growing calls for the FIA to fire the race director before 18 March 2022, the start of the new 2022 Formula 1 season, to prevent this scandal from happening again in the future.

Reactions supportive of race controls decisions

Max Verstappen

After winning the race and the World Championship Max Verstappen was elated. Regarding the decisions of race control, he commented: "Finally a bit of luck for me.

Christian Horner

Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner remarked after the race: “I think we felt the decision at the beginning of the race went against us and the decision at the end of the race was right,” Horner said.

“Max was finally due a bit of luck and Latifi causing that safety car just gave us the opportunity and after Silverstone, Budapest, and Azerbaijan, he felt his luck wasn’t with him today he had a bit of luck, it came at the right time and he had to make it happen.”

Horner also defended race director Michael Masi, who came under scrutiny for how he had handled the restart procedure.

“I think he made the right decision,” Horner said. “He followed the rules procedure if you look at the rules available to him and he’s made the right call today. We’ve always discussed throughout about ‘Let them race’ and about getting the races re-going, and he’s done that today”.

Alexander Albon

Former Thai-British Formula 1 driver and current reserve driver for Red Bull Alexander Albon, told the Netherland Motorsport Magazine that he understood both sides of the story, but he also believed that the result was a result of "deserved Karma".

Gerhard Berger

Former F1 driver and 10-times race winner Gerhard Berger praised Michael Masi in the Austrian newspaper Der Standard, as having done a good job not only in Abu Dhabi but the entire year.

"He has a pragmatic approach and tries to find solutions, but I don't think he's doing anything that's not allowed. Masi made a different decision, but not to help anyone, but to give the fans a sportingly one last lap to decide the fight. For the fans, that's the right thing to do and he gets to do it."

John Stewart ("Jackie Stewart")

Former Formula 1 driver and 3-time World Champion Jackie Stewart commented regarding the controversial decisions:

"Well, whatever way it worked out, it happened and we should just be very proud of our season, it’s been a fantastic season,” the three-time world champion told Eurosport on Sunday at Yas Marina Circuit.

Mika Häkkinen

Former Formula 1 driver and 2-time World Champion Mika Häkkinen supported Masi's decision to arbitrarily shorten the safety car procedure for a final lap shoot out:

"I think it would have been much worse if this World Championship had finished behind a Safety Car," the Finn wrote in his post-race column for Unibet. "That really would have been such an anti-climax. The Race Director's decision, later supported by the four stewards, is based on his understanding of the rules including his responsibility for deciding when the Safety Car returns to the pits."

Romain Grosjean

Former Formula 1 driver Romain Grosjean claimed the decision was a "bad call for Lewis, but great for the TV spectacle."

Andreas Seidl

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl, suggested Masi's role should be understood in the context of an intense title battle and appreciated.

Mattia Binotto

Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto defended Masi, saying that "his job was the most difficult job on the planet at that time."

Norbert Haug

In the direct aftermath of Abu Dhabi’s race and the surrounding controversy around the race director, former vice president of Mercedes-Benz motorsport and 24 Hours Nürburgring endurance race driver Norbert Haug his opinion to the RedBull owned TV station Servus TV, claiming "Michael Masi was ingenious and brilliant in finding a solution." Regarding the protests of Mercedes, he advised his former employer: "Sh!t happens... but there comes a time to show dignity, and keep your mouth shut."

Reactions by the International Press

Jack Austin on American Fox Sports commented Formula 1 "engineered" a finish to increase viewer excitement.

Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic mirrored this view, and surmised that Masi's decision was to ensure that "Netflix gets another juicy storyline for the next season of Drive to Survive". Bianchi also questioned the race director`s capability of officiating Formula 1 races.

Matt Dickinson with The Times suggested FIA should thoroughly review the officiating process. However, he also rejected complaints that race controls decision were made for entertainment. He stated that "rules in sport are contrived — and frequently tweaked to make a sport more entertaining — and we should not pretend that there is only one perspective of justice, or that sport is an endless pursuit of fairness." He also pointed out, the protests of injustice were coming from a British point of view; that fans in other parts of the world did not believe Masi's calls had been unfair to Hamilton.

Formula 1 journalist for "The Race" Scott Mitchell commented that since Masi's appointment in 2019, drivers and teams have been unhappy with how the FIA had begun to interpret regulations, and that the Abu Dhabi situation was the culmination.

BBC chief Formula 1 writer Andrew Benson headlined the race report: "'Max Verstappen's win decided by a questionable call'" and further commented that what happened in the last lap "was unprecedented, observers - drivers and team members - were baffled. What happened is not the way things are normally dealt with". He continued with: "The world championship had changed hands - as a result of a questionable call from the race director".

Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad remarked luck had played throughout the season, and that it wasn`t Verstappen's fault that his win had "become tainted with controversy."

Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant pointed out that a Formula 1 race director is under immense pressure to make snap decisions, and therefore expressed sympathy with Masi.

German news weekly DER SPIEGEL called the ending of the race "not normal" and "the race control confusing", while another German Newspaper "Die WELT" headlined the "The race director caused a split in F1" and "deeply interfered in the title race, with his decisions"

French Auto magazine Autohebdo headlined Michael Masi`s decision: "A nasty trick by Masi in Abu Dhabi", that "condemned Lewis Hamilton and led to his downfall.

German Automobile Magazine "Auto Motor und Sport" commented on the decision only to unlap 5 drivers that Masi made a decision "for the Sport", and that "a team sometimes wins, and sometimes loses".

Andrew Lawrence of the African-American HBCU Sports website The Undefeated gave his commentary: "Lewis Hamilton was robbed", he started:

"Masi had so many better options at his disposal than what he ultimately chose. He could have stopped the race entirely to clear the crash wreckage, which would’ve given Hamilton and Verstappen an opportunity to swap for new tires and set up a fair duel. Or Masi could’ve let the race finish behind the safety car and left the running order unchanged, a tack he took earlier this season when rain overwhelmed the Belgian Grand Prix. Instead, Masi stacked the deck for Verstappen... Had the Abu Dhabi race ended fair and square, we all know who comes out on top."

Chris Medland, an editor for the "Racer" racing website, concluded: "...never has a more brilliant season been destroyed so easily."

FIA inquiry

In a statement released on 15 December 2021, the FIA announced that it would investigate the race to determine what went wrong and whether any changes should be made to the safety car procedure.

According to the FIA, the review began in January 2022 and is expected to be completed by February 2022. In the same statement, the FIA noted that misunderstandings between teams, drivers, and fans "tarnished the image" of the World Drivers' Championship.

In an interview released on 17 December 2021, Sulayem indicated he was considering making changes in the future to prevent such controversy, including the possibility of removing Masi from his role as Formula 1 race director. However, he said he wanted to get as much information as possible what happened in Abu Dhabi before making any final decisions.

As of 13 January 2022, the FIA indicated communicated it was contemplating making changes to safety car procedures as well as its internal operational structure within Formula 1 after consulting with all ten Formula 1 teams on "various issues," including a discussion of the Abu Dhabi events.

The FIA's Sporting Advisory Committee will discuss the matter of changing the safety car procedure in a meeting scheduled for 19 January 2022. Any changes agreed upon should be disclosed at a meeting held by the commission in February 2022, before being ratified by the FIA's World Motorsport Council on 18 March 20, two days before the opening round of the 2022 Formula 1 World Championship.

Nevertheless, the editors of Motorsport Magazine "The RACE" predict that the FIA will confirm that the decision was technically correct and within the rules, but that there will be some regulatory changes as a compromise.

Growing outrage January 2022

Scott Mitchell from the Motorsport Magazine "The RACE" criticized the FIA's initial December statement in response to the controversy for its suggestion, that fans had "misunderstood" the events that occurred at the end of the Grand Prix, for its odd phrasing and attempt to shift blame.

However, beginning of January, reports started emerging that within the FIA there was initially a sense that the issue would go away as time passed, and as the issue continued going on, they might have underestimated the gravity of the situation, and what had occurred in Abu Dhabi. The Abu Dhabi scandal has been an ongoing topic in Formula 1 for the past 2 months.

The BBC reported on 11 January 2022, that Hamilton`s future in the sport, was pending on the outcome of FIA's upcoming investigation into the events of the race. The BBC also reported the Formula 1 paddock was expecting the FIA to take significant action as a result of the race, including the replacement of Masi as FIA race director.

Beginning of January 2022, BBC also reported that Mercedes had dropped its appeal against the results in a quid pro quo exchange, one in which Masi and Formula 1 technical director Nikolas Tombazis would not have their positions in the 2022 season. It was thought, that Tombazis's latest amendments to the 2021 technical regulations were intended to curb Mercedes' dominance. However, Mercedes denied that any such deal was made.

Additionally, it was reported that Wolff would meet privately with the newly-elected FIA president Mohammed bin Sulayem to discuss the way forward from the incident, including Masi's future.

The BBC furthermore reported that Sulayem is expected to engage in similar discussions on future governance with the other nine team principals following his private talks with Wolff and that FIA Secretary General Peter Bayer, will lead the FIA's inquiry and meet with driver representatives, to assess the matter of inconsistent stewards decisions, and their negative impact on driving standards; especially with what many drivers discerned to be quite a lenient attitude by Masi and race stewards towards Verstappen's driving during the 2021 season, particularly following incidents in the 2021 São Paulo Grand Prix (where Verstappen forced Hamilton off track at turn 4 but was not penalised) and the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix (where Verstappen braked in the middle of a straight).

January 14, 2022, one month after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Sky Sports F1 held an "F1 show special - Abu Dhabi: One month on" video conferenced panel, hosted by Sky Sports F1 Simon Lazenby on the events and ongoing controversy, with the Sky Sports F1 analysts and pit lane reporters Damon Hill, Johnny Herbert, Martin Brundle, David Croft, Ted Kravitz, Rachel Brookes, Craig Slater, Karun Chandhok, and Anthony Davidson. in which new, previously unreleased team radio footages were also revealed, showing the extent of the chaos during the last few laps of the race.

Both Martin Brundle and race commentator David Croft admitted that "mistakes were made". Brundle emphasized that a race director "can`t freestyle regulations" because teams are planning race strategies on the rules as they are written in the regulations. However, he maintained that he didn`t believe there was a conspiracy, malice, or fixing the race, certainly not as there was no "good evidence".

Damon Hill and Karun Chandhok contended that Michael Masi had 3 options: "Ending the race under a safety car, or not allowing any cars to unlap themselves and then maybe get one lap in, or to red flag the race like the one we had in Baku. But that wasn`t the choice that he took".

Hill pointed out the actions of race control "allowed some cars to unlap themselves, but not others, now that in itself is unfair, because what it resulted with is a focus on the two title protagonists, and I don't think you can run a motor race or a championship like that. You have to apply the rules equally to all competitors". However Damon Hill also made it clear that "manipulated was too strong a word" to describe the ending of the race.

Anthony Davidson added an important viewpoint to the debate, by explaining that the actions of race control, were also unfair on the cars who are racing those other five cars who were allowed to overtake the safety car. "In my opinion, if I'd been one of those drivers watching that group of cars overtake, I would have been gutted. They are more than just two people in that race, don't forget", he contended. However, he also contended that Hamilton wasn`t robbed of the championship, because Verstappen himself had lots of bad luck in Baku and Hungary, but Lewis was definitely robbed of the race win in Abu Dhabi.

Rachel Brookes suggested that the outrage of Formula 1 fans was mainly because a Formula 1 team couldn't plan for a mid-race regulation change or sudden new interpretation of the regulations, and that Formula 1 fans were now concerned and asking, if entertainment was getting more important to a race director, than the sporting competition.

Ted Kravitz pushed back at the notion that all of this happened because Michael Masi was under pressure and had to make a snap decision. He pointed out that there were the 4 minutes between 18:27 PM and 18:31 PM, between the race directors message that cars wouldn`t be able allowed to overtake, and when the race director changed his mind and allowed only the lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to overtake, and he suggested that the FIA in its investigation would need to investigate what exactly happened within those four minutes; for Formula 1 fans to regain their trust in the integrity and credibility of Formula 1. He also stressed that the FIA would need to invest why the race director changed his mind or if someone else convinced him to change his mind.

Regarding the question, if the race director could survive this scandal: Johnny Herbert believed that he couldn`t, because he had done "too much damage" to Formula 1, and because the teams and the fans had lost trust in him. Sky News Sports reporter Craig Slater reported that although teams have invested a lot into Michael Masi, at the moment it was hard to imagine Masi still being race director at the beginning of the season, as his position had become untenable. Damon Hill believed that Masi had learned his lesson and that Masi simply needed help and backup to do his job. Martin Brundle did not believe just getting rid of Masi would solve all of Formula 1`s credibility problems, and that Masi alone isn`t able to do this job.

On 17 January 2022, Zak Brown cited the Abu Dhabi controversy, and cancellation of the 2020 Australian Grand Prix at the last minute, as well as the handling of the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix as signs the FIA has had organization and rule-making issues for a significant period and needs of a major overhaul.

Formula 1 journalist Mark Hughes observed Hamilton's silence since Abu Dhabi echoed Ayrton Senna's 1989 and 1990 feud with the governing body after those championship deciders.

See also

• Allegations of cheating in the 1994 Formula One season
• 2007 Formula One espionage controversy
• 2008 Formula One season
• 2008 Singapore Grand Prix
• 2009 Formula One season
• 2013 Federated Auto Parts 400, ("Spingate")

External links

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Category:Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, 2021 Category:Formula One controversies