Formula 1 has never seen a race with such a shock, controversy and result as it did at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi a year ago today.
With 12 minutes to go, the eighth world championship looked to have been nailed down for Lewis Hamilton with a late safety car appearance and a final lap restart against the rules. When it was over, Max Verstappen took the crown in a stunning upset, much to the chagrin of Hamilton and his Mercedes team.
Mercedes immediately contested the results of the race on several grounds. His main issue was FIA F1 race director Michael Massi’s failure to properly follow safety car procedures in two respects – not allowing all armored cars to release behind the safety car and restarting the race too soon. The objections were rejected by the race stewards and four days later Mercedes confirmed they would not exercise their right to appeal.
That removed any threat to Verstappen’s title. But months later, after a detailed investigation into what happened, the FIA agreed that Massi had indeed made a mistake and resigned from the governing body.
In the 12 months since that moment, a lot has changed in Formula 1. There’s a lot about F1 here as a direct result of those seismic final six rounds.
New FIA leadership promises transparency.
The 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is not only the final race of the 2021 championship and the last grand prix of the sport’s previous generation of cars, it is also the last Grand Prix hosted by FIA President Jean Todt.
Todt has reached the end of his tenure at the helm of Formula 1’s governing body after 12 years and three terms as president. Five days after the checkered flag fell in Abu Dhabi, Mohammed Ben Suleiman was declared the winner of the election, defeating Todt’s right-hand man, Graham Stoker.
Among Todt’s final tasks was to order a full review of the final round of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which saw Ben Sulaiman and his new team through. The inquiry was chaired by FIA Sporting Secretary General Peter Bayer.
His findings were published in March. Massey failed to properly follow safety car procedures due to “human error”, but ruled it acted in “good faith” at the time. Despite accepting the rules, the FIA said there was no possibility of changing the final result of the race or the championship.
In the year Ben Suleiman has made increasing transparency a key aspect of his presidency in 2022. After the full Abu Dhabi report was shared publicly by the governing body, the FIA published its report on the inaugural Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, sharing detailed analysis of the dangerous close-ups between drivers and a crane released onto the track. And make quick changes in the process. Drivers welcomed the move and expressed their interest in continuing discussions with the FIA on future safety issues.
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Trembling in racial control
Before the FIA report’s findings were published, Massi’s resignation as F1 race director was announced, at the end of his third season. He later resigned from the governing body altogether.
To replace him, the FIA made an unprecedented change. In the year In 2022, two race directors were appointed to share the duties during the 22-race season. Former DTM race director Nils Wittich and veteran World Endurance Champion and Le Mans 24 Hours race director Eduardo Freitas will share the position.
Wittich started the season covering the first five Grands Prix before Freitas was booked for the Spanish Grand Prix and Monaco. However, Freitas’ delayed start following sudden rain before the Monaco Grand Prix drew criticism from some drivers and team members and tensions rose again after drivers complained of a lack of consistency in how some rules were applied.
Following the controversial drivers’ meeting with Witch at the Red Bull Ring, Grand Prix Drivers’ Association director George Russell called on the FIA to consider a return to one race director and more regular stewards between races. Following another Suzuka controversy that led to an investigation into a crane being released on a wet track, the FIA announced that Wittich will be the sole race director for the final phase of the championship, angering many drivers. There is no indication that the rotation system will return for the 2023 F1 season.
One small but significant change since last year is that Grands Prix-accredited media are no longer allowed to submit questions to the Race Director at the conclusion of the Grand Prix weekend. In the year Throughout 2021, Massey took questions from media around the circuit after each major race and provided valuable insight into how and why various decisions were made.
These regular sessions culminated in the race before Abu Dhabi, in Jeddah, where Verstappen was penalized twice after he and Hamilton collided repeatedly in an ill-tempered race. That round produced no shortage of questions, as Yas Marina did a week later and several races in 2022, but the FIA did not give the media a chance to sit down with Massi’s successors.
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Rules change
As expected, the furore over the Abu Dhabi race has led to regulatory changes and clarifications to prevent such a scenario from happening again.
In Massi’s controversial decision, the FIA introduced an automatic system to allow the armored cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to join the lead lap in violation of the rules, rather than deciding which cars were allowed to lap. Race director.
The wording of the relevant Article 55.13 of the Sporting Laws has also been revised: the text reads at the beginning: “Cars engaged in the lead are required to pass the cars on the lead lap and the safety car”. The revised text refers to “all cars”, removing any potential ambiguity, although race control has never been implemented as previously mandated by Abu Dhabi.
The safety car system has been revised for the start of the 2022 season. Following F1’s return to Jeddah earlier this year, drivers were told to maintain single file before the restart. Verstappen sparked another unsuccessful Mercedes protest by drawing with Hamilton at the final Abu Dhabi restart and briefly nose-diving in front, but drivers from this year’s Australian Grand Prix have been told not to overlap the car in front at the restart.
To help improve drivers’ understanding of the rules of racing, the FIA has produced a series of guidelines to advise stewards on how to go about assessing incidents such as collisions. These were shared with the drivers by race director Nils Wittich at the start of the season, but they don’t seem to have done much to reduce complaints of miscommunication from competitors.
The rules for track restrictions have also been simplified with the new race director regime. Massey’s approach is that for every single circuit, drivers are told that the white lines form the limits of the track and that laps where all four tires are off-line are cancelled.
The FIA has instructed that teams may not take positions gained or reserved by exceeding track limits or asking other drivers to take them off track. Teams have been told to use their own discretion to ask drivers to leave if they feel they have broken the rules. But before teams do that — and regularly do — they can consult race control for clarification.
Another reason for the Abu Dhabi controversy is the FIA’s creation of an off-site ‘remote operations centre’ in Geneva, which will provide third-party support to race directors and stewards when investigating incidents. Although its role was largely limited to the background, the FIA said in its Suzuka report that the center played a major role in the investigations.
Finally, team directors are not allowed to speak directly with the tournament director. All communications between the teams and race control must come through the sports director appointed by the team.
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distribution changes
A major change to live coverage of Formula 1 in 2022 is that after the Abu Dhabi controversy, radio messages between teams and race control will no longer be broadcast during Grands Prix coverage. In the tumultuous championship battle between Verstappen and Hamilton in 2021, team principals Toto Wolff and Christian Horner and Massey’s radio clips were a regular soundtrack to the on-track drama.
When controversy erupted in the final lap of the race, Wolff’s impassioned protest of “No, Michael, no – it’s not right” was instantly immortalized in F1 fan culture. After the race, Massey’s defense of “It’s called a motor race, we went to a car race” was equally infamous.
Red Bull Sporting Director Jonathan Wheatley said his Mercedes counterpart, Ron Meadows, had found millions in race control broadcasts on world food, but his letter was once again classified. As these radio clips reveal, a fascinating behind-the-scenes look, these sensitive and occasionally heated conversations between the two parties are held solely for the benefit of the sport.
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Verstappen takes the crown when Mercedes fails
In the year Both Verstappen and Hamilton would be eligible winners of the championship by 2021, with the 22-year-old competing. As we head into a new season with a host of new regulations for 2022, the prospect of the duo resuming their battle to match Hamilton’s results was an exciting prospect.
It was not to be. Mercedes arrived with a new car fundamentally damaged by their excessive aero porpoise, while Verstappen and Red Bull had to fight off a resurgent Ferrari in the first part of the season.
Despite some early reliability issues, Red Bull built their RB18 all-conquering behemoth and that alone allowed Verstappen to take an unprecedented 15 race wins and win the championship in four races to claim his second world title. It took just one race for the Red Bull constructors to secure the championship – their first since 2013.
For Mercedes, 2022 has seen a significant drop in performance compared to Abu Dhabi. The team struggled to keep up with Red Bull and Ferrari at the start of the season. Finally, Mercedes managed to close the gap with their rivals. But while Red Bull added 17 race wins over the course of the season, Mercedes managed just one victory all year – at the final round in Brazil – and dropped to third place in the Constructors’ Championship by the end of the year.
That race saw the first clash between Hamilton and Verstappen since last season’s drama. Will we see them go toe-to-toe for another title – and will they try to break FIA rules and race management again?
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