On December 16, Beijing time, the Mercedes-Benz F1 team officially announced that it would abandon the appeal for the safety car incident at the end of the 2021 season in Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
In the last five laps of the F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Williams driver Rafiti directly hit the parapet in a fight with Mick Schumacher to trigger the yellow flag, the race will send out a safety car, under the leadership of the safety car, Hamilton's 12-second advantage is all cleared, and the race officer decides to unset the snared car in the last lap, and announces that the safety car will leave the race to restart, and the driver will decide the championship. In the end, Verstappen overtook Hamilton on the final lap to win the world championship.
The decision to meet in Abu Dhabi on the last five laps was also a source of controversy, with Mercedes team appealing immediately after the race, and on 13 December, the FIA announced that it rejected Mercedes' appeal.
On December 15, the official website of the FIA issued a statement that the FIA was concerned about the controversy and misunderstanding caused by the use of safety vehicles at the end of the F1 season in Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and the communication between the team and the CIA management team. The World Council of Motor Sport will analyse and clarify the matter and push for race improvement.
According to British media reports, the Mayben team finally decided to abandon the appeal, on the one hand, believing that the continuation of the lawsuit, whether Verstappen's world championship is cancelled or not, will have a negative impact on the sport itself; on the other hand, Hamilton himself does not want to win his eighth world championship through litigation.
Mayben also congratulated Verstappen in a statement: "To Verstappen and Red Bull Racing: We sincerely salute your achievements this season. You've made this F1 title battle a truly epic race. Max, we congratulate you and your team. We look forward to playing you on the track next season. ”
(Source: Sports Weekly)
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