It’s not all over yet…Mercedes state intention to appeal
Max Verstappen, Red Bull, and Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, battle at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. December 2021.
Mercedes have declared their intention to appeal against the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix result after the stewards threw out their protest over Article 48.12.
The race ended in dramatic and controversial circumstances as the decision was made to restart the race with one lap remaining following a Safety Car period.
Nicholas Latifi’s crash triggered the Safety Car while Lewis Hamilton was leading and seemingly well on his way to an eighth World Championship, but that neutralising of the race allowed P2 runner and Hamilton’s title rival Max Verstappen to pit for soft tyres and lose no time.
It is normal procedure before the Safety Car releases the pack for lapped cars to be allowed to un-lap themselves and pass the Safety Car. But Abu Dhabi was controversial because only the drivers between Verstappen and Hamilton did so, rather than all of those lapped runners.
Verstappen overtook Hamilton on that final lap, crowning himself World Champion for the first time in his career.
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) December 12, 2021
Following the race, Mercedes launched two protests, one of them relating to that interpretation of Article 48.12, the other regarding Verstappen allegedly overtaking Hamilton behind the Safety Car.
The latter was the first of those appeals to be struck off, and later the decision to give Mercedes’ Article 48.12 protest the same treatment arrived.
Mercedes have, however, lodged their attention to appeal the ruling relating to Article 48.12.
At this stage, it is important to note this is not an official appeal, but merely notice from Mercedes that they will consider their case and then make a final decision over whether or not they submit another appeal.
Mercedes now have 96 hours to confirm their decision, which means the deadline is Thursday.
