The FIA’s handling of the highly controversial ending to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has been heavily criticised as the sport “marking its own homework” by a leading international arbitration lawyer.
Duncan Bagshaw believes Mercedes would have a strong case for the decisions which cost Lewis Hamilton an almost certain win and the Formula One world championship, to be overturned.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was crowned world champion after taking a dramatic last-lap victory at the Yas Marina circuit but the result was confirmed only after hours of deliberation and two rejected Mercedes’ protests following a disputed intervention during the final laps by the FIA race director, Michael Masi.
Bagshaw, a barrister at Howard Kennedy specialising in international arbitration and litigation, was dismissive of the process and said Mercedes would be in a strong position to mount legal action.
“There was a challenge to the FIA last night which was resolved very quickly,” he said on the BBC’s Today programme. “The FIA, marking its own homework, perhaps unsurprisingly said that they stood by the decision of the race director Michael Masi. Mercedes do have a case and I think it is quite likely they will take it to a court of arbitration because so much turns on the outcome of these races they may feel they really have no choice.”
Hamilton had looked in control and on for the win when five laps from the end a safety car was triggered after Nicholas Latifi crashed his Williams. Verstappen pitted for fresh tyres with which to attack Hamilton while Mercedes kept their man out to maintain track position.
With so few laps to go the expectation would ordinarily have been for the race to conclude under the safety car. However it appeared that the FIA wanted to ensure it was finished with a racing lap. Mercedes believe there was an unfair FIA intervention to ensure Verstappen was right behind Hamilton’s for that final lap shootout.
Red Bull’s team principal, Christian Horner, had asked the FIA race director, Michael Masi, to allow the lapped cars between Verstappen and Hamilton to unlap themselves, leaving the title protagonists closed-up for the crucial final lap. It was initially stated they would not be allowed to do so but it was then announced that those five cars specifically could unlap themselves.
When racing resumed Hamilton was a sitting duck on much older tyres and Verstappen swiftly passed him to take the win and the title. Mercedes protested the handling of the safety car procedures but had their protests rejected.
Mercedes intend to appeal against the decisions rejecting their protests but they could yet go further. They can take their case to the dispute resolution procedure under F1’s concorde agreement, the contract between the teams, the FIA and the commercial rights holder and they could also take it to the court of arbitration for sport in Switzerland. Considering his interpretation of what happened, Bagshaw was convinced Mercedes had a good case to do so.
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“This decision was by the race director himself applying a rule under the regulations which is, I would say, very clear and quite explicit about what has to happen in this situation.
“Everybody wanted to see that race finish in racing conditions but the rule makes it very clear that any cars that have been lapped by the leader have to be allowed to pass the leading cars and the safety car before the race is restarted and he did not allow that to happen.
“It’s very important for Mercedes to give the message that racing is the most important thing to this sport and that they respect the outcome of the race on the track but they must also accept the fact that commercially this is a sport that revolves around money.
“They have obligations to Lewis Hamilton, their team, their sponsors and many other people, it may be not so much they want to challenge this decision, that they want this season to be decided before a committee of arbitrators but simply that they don’t have any choice.”
