Lewis Hamilton had one of the best drives of the season during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Dec. 12 where he dominated the entire race, during which he only took one pitstop. Hamilton, tied for points in the Drivers’ Championship with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, had a clear chance to win the title when Nicholas Latifi crashed with five laps left in the race. This would cause a spectacularly controversial end to an already controversial season. Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington, senior race engineer, and Lewis’ headset partner, perfectly summed up the race when he said, “I’m just speechless, Lewis. Absolutely speechless,” as Verstappen crossed into first place, winning the Grand Prix and his first World Drivers’ Championship.
Red Bull Racing, in second place for the Constructors’ Championship, was strategically able to gain Verstappen an extra pit stop because of a yellow flag and Virtual Safety Car while he was in second place behind Hamilton, who had to stay out on the track to keep his first-place position. With five laps left in the race, Latifi crashed on the edge of the track and a physical Safety Car was sent in front of Hamilton to slow the race down as crews cleared the track. The slower speeds allowed Red Bull to pit Verstappen again for even fresher tires, but Verstappen came out of the pits with five lapped cars between him and Hamilton. With only a few laps remaining, the debris would not be cleared in time, and the race would end in a Safety Car, with Hamilton as World Champion.
Meanwhile, the race director, Michael Masi, and the stewards made a controversial decision by saying that the Safety Car would be dismissed so there would be one final lap of full racing. With Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal, communicating with Masi over the radio, the stewards stated that only five of the many lapped racing positions were to reposition into the proper racing order without stopping the race. The five positions selected only affected Red Bull and Verstappen, leaving the other team’s principals and drivers, including Lewis and ‘Bono,’ to sit back as Verstappen was the only one allowed to come up into second place. The new track position and far fresher tires allowed Verstappen to easily overtake Lewis in the final lap and win the Grand Prix and Drivers’ Championship.
The decision to not reset the race meant that other teams did not end the Grand Prix with their proper points or standings in the Constructors Championship, which directly affected the outcome of the race. If stewards had called a red flag and full reset of the race, as they had in Azerbaijan on June 6, when the race only had two laps left, all the teams would have been able to be positioned and allowed them to evenly strategize for their best results — and it would have followed the rules.
The controversy on the communication, the how, the why, and the way the Safety Car was handled in Abu Dhabi on Dec. 12 reached the Fédération International de l’Automobile (FIA), the organizational governing body of Formula One. The FIA said on Dec. 16 that the controversy surrounding this last race of the season is “currently tarnishing the image of the championship” and promised new changes for the 2022 season.
The Mercedes team launched two protests against the stewards and Masi’s decisions, but the protests were quickly dismissed. Toto Wolff, team principal and CEO of the Mercedes team, among other F1 teams and drivers, has spoken out against the ruling and is in strong support of league changes. Wolff is arguing for policy changes, such as team principals not being allowed to speak to the race director over the radio, saying “the whole system of decision making needs to be improved.”
In the drivers’ world, Verstappen celebrates his maiden world championship and being the first Dutch F1 world champion. Hamilton was knighted by Prince Charles at Windsor Castle a few days after the race on Dec. 15. The newly turned 37-year-old, Sir Lewis Hamilton, signed a contract extension with Mercedes. He will be staying on until 2023 and must adjust to a new car and new teammate, George Russell, in the upcoming months.
The drama of Formula One only takes a short rest as the new car designs, a fixed budget for all teams, and the first race in Bahrain is just shy of two months away, on Mar. 18.
Images: James Moy
Teryn Midzain is an English Major with ambitious goals to write movies and a full-time nerd, whose personality and eccentrics run on high-octane like the cars he loves. More importantly, Teryn loves sports [Formula One], and doesn’t care who knows. When not creating and running deadly schemes in his D&D sessions, Teryn tries to reach the core of what makes the romantic and dramatic World of Sports, the characters and people that make the events so spectacular.
