Four hours after the F1 finale, Abu D'Abu D', the entire Red Bull team was supposed to walk the red carpet to enjoy their celebration party, but champagne remained unopened until 11 p.m. local time.
Mercedes formally protested the timing of the withdrawal of the safety car by the race officers, insisting that Verstappen overtook under the guidance of the safety car. The race officer then summoned Red Bull's manager, and as Horner stood up and walked toward the club officer's office, the team's technical director, Newey, stood by his side, looking as if they were going to a fight.
About 15 minutes later, Horner and Newey walked out of the office with a smile on their faces, they didn't comment, but when they returned to team P, there was an immediate burst of cheers. Then the head of Red Bull's media department sent a simple message: "The protest [of Mercedes] is not supported. ”
In this way, Verstappen was crowned world champion for the "second time" this evening.
Verstappen's world title remains unsettled
Just 30 minutes after the FIA announced the rejection of Mercedes' protests, Mercedes confirmed that they would file a formal appeal, and the FIA will decide whether to accept the appeal within 96 hours (and before Thursday), so that the current World Champion of Verstappen is still asterisked (undetermined).
Arguably, this is the worst way for a new F1 champion to be crowned. On the day F1 captured the attention of the entire sports world, it showed an unpleasant plot in which the wrongly enforced rules determined where the champions belonged. It had nothing to do with the team and the drivers, it was the FIA that deprived Hamilton of the chance to win, and although Verstappen remained a respectable world champion, it was clear that Mercedes deserved the same victory on this night.
What went wrong?
Verstappen's fierce offensive and defensive battle with Hamilton in the final lap was not actually the most decisive. Hamilton completed his only pit stop on lap 15 of the race, and Mercedes had been hoping for no accidents in the ensuing race, but on lap 53, Latifi crashed and triggered a safety car.
Given hamilton and Verstappen's position on the track at the time, Mercedes could not take advantage of the opportunity to get Hamilton to change tyres because if the team did, it would give the lead directly to Verstappen, and the risk of doing so was that if the race ended with a safety car, then Verstappen would "pick up" a title in vain.
For Red Bull, the reason for deciding to pit stop is simple, because they have nothing to lose, on the contrary, it is Verstappen's only chance to turn the tables. In any case, Verstappen will be second on the track after the tire change, but he will have the advantage in terms of tyres once the race resumes.
By this time Hamilton had realized the danger, and he told the team, which told Hamilton: "We can't afford the potential loss of the pit stop. Verstappen had a free pit stop, but if we did, Red Bull would choose not to pit stop so we would give up the lead to them. There are 4 laps left in the race and when you get back on the track, you'll have a lot of possession on the track and we don't think the race should start over. ”
Hamilton: "Will he come out directly behind me?" ”
Team: "Yeah, he'll come back after changing the tyres." ”
Hamilton: "With new tires?" ”
Team: "Yes, Lewis. If we pitted, we would lose the lead. ”
With three laps left, the Race Control Centre broke the usual rules by informing the team that slow trains that were snared would not be allowed to unwind on their own. Although it was not disclosed at the time, the purpose of this was to restart the race as soon as possible, so that the championship could be decided by a lap rather than behind the safety car.
The decision caused great controversy because it meant that there would be five slow cars between Hamilton and Verstappen when restarted, which effectively obliterated any chance that Verstappen would use the new tyres to overtake Hamilton, as he couldn't overtake all five slow cars in one lap and overtake Hamilton again.
Verstappen's engineers revealed the news to their own drivers: "The snared car was not allowed to unwind. ”
Verstappen: "Of course, they always make decisions like this (against me). ”
Engineer: "It's really typical. ”
Verstappen: "I'm not surprised."
Soon Horner joined in, but instead of talking to his driver, he opened a channel and called race director Michael Massie, who demanded that the race waive the usual procedure.
Horner: "Michael, I'm Christian (Horner). ”
Marcy: "Okay, say. ”
Horner: "Why don't we let these slow cars get out of the way?" ”
While monitoring Latifi's car being removed from the track, Massy was talking to Horner when he looked a little anxious: "Give me a little time... Christian...... Give me a little time. My main task is to figure this out. ”
Horner: "Just one lap of the race. ”
Then, contrary to the precedent of any safety car restart in F1 history, Massey decided to allow the five slow cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to unwind on their own, while the other cars remained in place – meeting Horner's request for the two drivers to play a showdown.
The FIA did not properly explain the decision after the race, but Massey appeared to be calling for speeding up the safety car and facilitating a showdown between Hamilton and Verstappen on the last lap, which while it was good from a race viewing point of view, was a big problem in terms of fairness.
We can live up to the anger of Mercedes team boss Wolff, who protested to Michael Massy over the radio as the final lap was about to begin: "This is not right, this is not right, Michael. And when Verstappen overtook Hamilton, he added, "No, Michael! No, Michael, that's not right! ”
The most high-profile exchange took place after the game, when Wolfe finally got a response from Marcy. Wolf said: "You can't resume the game in such a way, that's not right. ”
Massy replied, "Toto, this is racing. ”
Wolf: "What do you mean?" ”
Marcy: "Let's enjoy the competition..."
(Text/Li Tianyou)