Just as he had been throughout the race, Verstappen was calm and relaxed.
Suddenly, tens of team members emerged to greet the returning team bosses, including Verstappen himself. Moments later a collective ping of journalists' phones echoed around the paddock, confirming news from Red Bull's head of communications in a simple message: "Protest NOT upheld."Īs Horner got closer to Red Bull's hospitality, louder cheers and applauds built up. Again no comment.īut as the Red Bull bosses made their way back down the paddock, pursued by camera men and reporters a single cheer rang out from one of the hospitality units. No word on the outcome.Ī further five minutes passed before Horner, Newey and Wheatley emerged with facemasks covering what appeared to be the slightest of smiles. Now, the two teams were returning to the stewards to hear whether the result of the race could be overturned and consider their next steps.Īfter a long ten minutes the doors to the stewards' office slid open again and the Mercedes trio emerged. Unsurprisingly, given the nature of the way this year's championship has been fought, Mercedes protested the result. In a remarkable turn of events, Verstappen had passed Hamilton with less than two miles of the 2021 world championship left to run, but his ability to do so had hinged on a controversial decision by Masi. Their stride was no less purposeful, but by arriving just after Red Bull they avoided the focus of the camera lenses and glare of the flashlights, slipping relatively unnoticed through the automatic doors guarding the stewards' office.īy this point of the evening both teams had put their cases forward to the stewards over the events leading up to the dramatic final lap that decided the title. Engineering director Andrew Shovlin was accompanied by team manager Ron Meadows and Mercedes' legal counsel, Paul Harris QC. Moments later, Mercedes' representation turned up. All three wore serious faces for the numerous cameramen backpedalling in front of them. But the assumption was that the stewards would be ruling on an incident between the two drivers, not the actions of the FIA's own race director, Michael Masi.Īs he walked towards the stewards, Horner was flanked by Red Bull's long-time technical director Adrian Newey and the team's sporting director Jonathan Wheatley. At the previous three races in Brazil, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the stewards - F1's rotating panel of referees - had played some part in the outcome of the race or its qualifying session, with further incidents peppered throughout earlier rounds in the season.
Throughout the weekend jokes had been cracked about how this year's epic title battle between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton was destined to be decided in the stewards' office. In normal circumstances he would have been walking down the red carpet at one of Red Bull's legendary after parties by this time, but as the clock crept towards 11 PM the champagne was still on ice. Just four hours earlier, Horner had stood on the Abu Dhabi podium celebrating Verstappen's first world title.
twiceĪBU DHABI - Dressed in a t-shirt proudly pronouncing Max Verstappen as the 2021 world champion, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner marched towards the stewards' office on Sunday night to defend the very slogan stamped across his chest. Inside the Abu Dhabi GP: How F1 crowned Max Verstappen world champion.
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