Mayben's appeal failed Verstappen is confirmed as the 2021 World Champion

After Mercedes' two complaints at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix were dismissed by the FIA, Max Verstappen was confirmed as the 2021 World Champion.

Mercedes' first complaint alleging Verstappen overtaking Lewis Hamilton under a safety car, Mercedes' second complaint involved the last lap of the green light-up procedure, in which Verstappen overtook the Briton to win the race and his first world title. Mercedes argues that the FIA has violated Article 48.12 of the Sport Rules by allowing only some of the snare cars to overtake safety cars, rather than allowing all snare cars to overtake safety cars.

Verstappen won a frantic race in Abu Dhabi, overtaking Hamilton on the dramatic final lap to allow his car separate from his championship rival to pass through the safety car. This allowed the race to resume on the final lap, with the Red Bull driver overtaking Hamilton to secure his first world title, but the FIA investigated both issues after Mercedes protested.

The relevant section of Article 48.12 reads: If the race officer considers it safe to do so and sends the message "Snare can now overtake" to all participants through the official information system, any race car will be required to pass the leader and safety car, and when the last snare car exceeds the leader, the safety car will return to the maintenance area on the next lap.

The race officer's explanation was that the purpose of article 48.12 was to avoid disturbing the race by the snare racing car. In accordance with the provisions of Article 48.13, the Race has informed the safety car to return to the station, and the safety car must return to the maintenance area at the time of the lap.