Mercedes formally withdrew the appeal

Mercedes have officially confirmed that they will withdraw their appeal against the disputed issues at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Thursday, December 16 was actually the "deadline" for Mercedes to formally appeal Max Verstappen's controversial victory at the Yas Marina circuit, with Mercedes initially saying it intended to appeal two dismissed protests submitted after Sunday's race.

As the 96-hour appeal window approached, Mercedes in Britain on Thursday morning issued a statement formally announcing that they would no longer proceed through the courts.

The Mercedes team issued a statement on Thursday saying: "When we left Abu Dhabi, we didn't believe everything we had just seen, losing the race is of course part of the race, but when you lose confidence in the race, it's different. Together with Lewis, we carefully considered how to deal with the events in the F1 season finale.

We have always been guided by our love of the sport and we believe that every race should be won by performance. In Sunday's game, many people, including us, felt that things were not going the right way.

The reason we protested the outcome of Sunday's race was that after Lewis was far ahead and was expected to win the world championship, the safety car rules were applied in a new way, which affected the outcome of the race.

We appealed out of consideration for sport fairness and since then we have been engaged in constructive dialogue with the FIA and F1 to clarify the future and let all participants know the rules of the game and how to enforce them.

On Wednesday night, the FIA issued its own statement on the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, promising a full investigation into the controversy over the last lap, and the outcome of this constructive dialogue began to become clear. The Mercedes team cited the commitment and welcomed the agreement on clear and transparent racing rules for the future.

The statement continued: "We therefore welcome the FIA's decision to set up a committee to comprehensively analyse what is happening in Abu Dhabi and to improve the robustness of F1 rules, management and decision-making, with which Mercedes Will actively work to create a better F1 for every team and every fan who loves the sport as much as we do.