The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix took place far beyond what the official rankings will report, namely one hour, thirty minutes and seventeen seconds. At 11.05 pm by Yas Marina, after three visits to the sports commissioners’ college, Christian Horner and Adrian Newey left the race direction.
As they walked briskly, Horner put his arm on Newey’s shoulder and smiled at the rest of the team who were waiting for him in front of the hospitality. It was the confirmation that Max Verstappen is the 2021 world champion, although there will most likely be a queue linked to the Mercedes appeal, given that the team has reserved the right to present him.
What happened today in Yas Marina will cause discussion for a long time, because seven days after the events in Jeddah we found ourselves once again having to plumb among the quibbles of the sporting regulations to understand if what was celebrated more than three hours earlier on the podium was what that would actually go to the archive.
In many respects it is fortunate that the verdict of the checkered flag has been confirmed, it affects the credibility of the sport and the veracity of what we witness on the track. A different outcome would have been a very hard blow to race management and the system that regulates Formula 1.
Max Verstappen at the age of twenty-four is on the top of the world, and in full “Super Max” style he got there with the last possible call, that is the safety car that froze the race with five laps to go. On a Sunday in which Mercedes confirmed that they have the best car, the fear of making a mistake prevailed over the need to be daring, which succeeded perfectly in the Red Bull garage.
The two scenarios were obviously different: in Mercedes there was the fear of ruining a race up to that moment perfect, for Red Bull the awareness of having no other opportunity to bet on the opposite choice to that of the opponent, an easier task. which eventually paid off.
Mercedes did not call Hamilton back to the pits, perhaps out of fear that the race would not restart, and Red Bull acted accordingly, stopping Verstappen and fitting him with a fresh set of tires.
At that point the race was in the hands of Michael Masi: in the event of a restart it was very clear that Max would have won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and the 2021 World Championship, while Hamilton would have celebrated his eighth title. The green flag arrived one lap from the end, and everything went as expected, with Verstappen able to electrocute Hamilton thanks to a much greater grip guaranteed by the tires.
Verstappen, undoubtedly lucky in the circumstance, deserves credit for never giving up, even when logic had already condemned him to defeat. He had an opportunity and he made the best of it, as he has been able to do on many other occasions this season.
What left a bad taste in Mercedes’ mouth was above all having lost the race and the world championship on a day in which Hamilton was impeccable (starting from the start) and in which the car confirmed itself superior to Red Bull.
It happens, when you get to play everything in a race, you have to take into account that an episode can change everything, and today in Yas Marina the wildcard was Nicolas Latifi’s exit from the track and the consequent safety car.
Mercedes nervousness is understandable, but in the end the best lesson came from the two great protagonists of this fantastic season, Lewis and Max.
The former world champion (already …) publicly complimented his opponent, and so did dad Anthony with dad Jos, a relaxing and sporting gesture that made it possible to experience an authentic award ceremony. Then the teams took the chair, with Mercedes feeling snatched from a championship she already felt in her pocket and Red Bull called to put down the bottles of champagne to take up the regulations again.
For three hours there was a long shuttle between the hospitality of the two teams and the college of stewards, called to overtime. In the end, the verdict arrived, which seems to indicate the path of common sense: “The Clerk of the Course also stated that it had been agreed by all the teams that, where possible, it would have been highly desirable for the race to end in a” green “condition. “(or not under the Safety Car regime)”. Also in the same document there is also another interesting passage: “Article 15.3 allows the Clerk of the Course to control the use of the safety car, which includes its deployment and withdrawal”.
Right, indeed quite right, but at this point it can be deduced that other articles (challenged by Mercedes) have in fact a null meaning. After the weekends in Jeddah and Yas Marina, the need emerges for a general reflection on the philosophy of a regulation that has grown year after year to become suffocating even for those who sit in the control room. Verstappen, Hamilton and the other drivers at the start deserve it, who together with their respective teams gave them a fantastic season with a crazy ending.
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