One year on from Abu Dhabi GP — what changed in F1... and what didn't
It should have been a showcase for Formula 1, but the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix title decider turned into a farce. Plenty has changed a year after the event, but issues — and rivalries remain
It has been twelve months since last season’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix — from the few frantic minutes when the 2021 drivers’ championship was decided amid the wails of Toto Wolff, the snippy retorts of race director Michael Masi, the urgings of Christian Horner and Mercedes’ standby lawyer swinging into action.
Even now, a full season of 22 races later, the bitter after-effects represent a wound that Formula 1 still cannot heal, peeling open each time the errors and emotions from that race continue to afflict the series.
Its governing body, the FIA, remains on the back foot, as awkwardly demonstrated at last week’s prize-giving ceremony. Presenting Red Bull boss Christian Horner with this year’s constructors’ championship trophy should have been a moment for celebration, but FIA president Mohammed ben Sulayem began talking about the team’s cost cap breach and then moved on to a defence of his officials’ actions at the Japanese Grand Prix: F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali had to intervene to get the night back on track.
Abu Dhabi has dominated the first year of Ben Sulayem’s period in office, having been voted in five days after the controversial season finale, where either Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton would have been worthy winners.
Much has changed but many issues remain, as we explore below. It’s a story that nobody who watched will need reminding of: until the late safety car, Hamilton had the lead and the better performance over the course of the race. He was destined for a record-breaking eighth championship.
But when the safety car bunched up the field at the end of the race, to allow marshals to clear the wreckage of Nicholas Latifi’s crashed Williams, Hamilton was vulnerable on old tyres — unable to pit without losing position — while Verstappen, directly behind, had been able to fit new tyres and retain second.
However, there weren’t enough laps to follow the usual restart procedure before the chequered flag, so Masi speeded it up in an unprecedented decision that allowed a final lap of racing. Wolff’s cry of “No Michael!” over the radio said everything: the result was all but inevitable.
Here is how Formula 1 has changed since the Abu Dhabi debacle.
Safety car procedure
The safety car call ultimately deposed Hamilton from his championship-winning position
Lars Baron/Getty Images
Ultimately, Masi took the wrong decision. Teams had previously told him that they were keen to avoid finishing under a safety car wherever possible, but the rules were not written with his course of action in mind.
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However, the FIA’s investigation conceded that there was a grey area where the rules could be interpreted as giving Masi free rein to adjust the procedure, which he did by allowing only some lapped cars to unlap themselves — so the race restarted with only the leading cars in position order rather than the full grid — and then immediately ordering the safety car in, instead of allowing the lapped cars to catch the pack up.
The rules have now been rewritten to remove that ambiguity.
Grey areas
Track limits have been clearer in 2022
Marc de Mattia / DPPI
The safety car procedure wasn’t the only part of the regulations that has been clarified since the Abu Dhabi race. It might be impossible to legislate for every eventuality, but last year saw the same issues resurfacing time and time again.
Exceeding track limits was the big one. F1 had seemingly slipped into a vague system where drivers weren’t allowed to cut some corners on some tracks, but could run as far off the circuit as they wanted on others, even where there appeared to be an advantage in doing so.
To popular acclaim, the white line at the margin of the circuit was reinstated as the edge and any driver putting all four wheels over the line is liable to have their lap deleted.
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However, the conundrum that drove the decisions in Abu Dhabi still remains: should races finish under the safety car?
Italian fans were denied the prospect of Charles Leclerc making a last-ditch bid for the race win in Monza this year, when the cars processed over the finish line, still under safety car conditions, as marshalls cleared the broken-down McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo.
There were plenty who thought that a red flag would be an apt way to finish the race.
Several grey areas remain. Suzuka came up in this year’s prize-giving because nobody had expected full points to be awarded for a race that only just went past half distance. That they were — which handed Verstappen the title — was down to an unintentional loophole, which meant that only shortened races that had been red-flagged (rather than delayed as in Japan) would award partial points.
Passing off track
Hamilton went off-track as Verstappen lunged down the inside of Turn 6
Joe Portlock/F1 via Getty Images
Before the Abu Dhabi safety car, the race’s big controversy came about when Hamilton fended off Verstappen early in the Abu Dhabi race by cutting a corner.
He slowed to allow the Red Bull driver to catch him up but didn’t have to give the place back. It followed previous incidents in Saudi Arabia where teams were seen to have negotiated with the race director in order to avoid a penalty for running off track.
This was supposed to be resolved in 2022 when teams would have to decide whether to give back places without any intervention from race control. If they kept an advantage by running off track, then they would risk a penalty.
However, this seems to have broken down. Over the season, Mercedes and Red Bull told their drivers to give places back after a message from race control.
No team radio
Masi had to field pitwall complaints during races
Grand Prix Photo
Verstappen and Hamilton in glorious battle provided the visuals for 2021, but let’s not forget that the soundtrack was more often than not team principals whining to Masi about how their rivals had barely crossed a white line / rubbed tyres / not left enough room / had done something to offend somebody else in this notoriously sensitive sport.
It was the first year that these distracting messages to the race director had been broadcast — and the last. Pitwalls trying to dictate the rules to race control in Abu Dhabi had to be the final straw.
Unfortunately, officials — no longer the race director — still have to listen to the grumbles. Happily, none of us do any more and that is probably a good thing for the sport.
Remote race control
Officials see everything in remote race control but limit communication with race control
FIA via Twitter
With the race director under fire, it’s unsurprising that Ben Sulayem leapt upon a suggestion for an F1 version of football’s VAR: more pairs of eyes that could analyse and assist with complicated and controversial decisions, taking more pressure off the race director.
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And so a new operations centre was set up in Geneva, with access to the same race feeds. It hasn’t quite panned out as billed though, which isn’t entirely surprising because it wasn’t very clear why a VAR system was needed: it’s not like in football where everyone has to stop and wait for a decision
The Swiss team is in touch with race control over grand prix weekends, helping to spot issues and analyse incidents but can’t overturn decisions.
But it may turn out to be more significant away from race weekends, where there are plans to use it to stage virtual race weekends. Officials and race directors will be able to simulate a grand prix and the many challenges that they may face, improving the standard of officiating and training new figures.
Hamilton vs Verstappen
Hamilton and Verstappen: still not giving way
Peter J Fox/Getty Images
The rivalry may have been paused in 2022 but the sense of injustice hasn’t gone away, whether it’s Max Verstappen facing endless questions about the legitimacy of the 2021 title, or Hamilton coming to terms with losing a record-breaking eighth championship in a sport where he knows there’s no guarantee that chance will come round again.
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Although the pair rarely found themselves fighting for the big points, there was a flashback to the intense and contact-filled battles of 2021 in Sao Paulo this year when battling for second. Once again, neither driver showed themselves willing to yield and they came together, dropping both down the field. “What can I say?” said Hamilton. “You know how it is with Max.”
“It’s just a shame,” said Verstappen. “I thought we could race quite well together but clearly the intention was not there to race.”
In the Motor Sport season review podcast, Mark Hughes pointed out how Verstappen’s battles with Leclerc this year had been cleaner; the Red Bull driver leaving his rival room. “That’s just not how he races Lewis,” said Hughes. “Lewis sometimes gives him room and sometimes thinks, ‘no’. It’s maybe not the wisest of choices that each of them makes.”
Dual race directors
Niels Wittich took charge for the final races of 2022
Alamy
The FIA seemed to feel guilty about the workload that it had placed upon Masi who, along with officiating 22 races, was attending other events to learn from different series, checking new venues, as well as being the lightning rod for media and teams at grands prix.
So a two-person role was created for 2022, bringing in two respected names: Eduardo Freitas from WEC and Niels Wittich from DTM. The theory was fine, but when a recovery vehicle joined a soaking wet Suzuka circuit before all cars were behind the safety car, the rotation was stopped, amid apparent concerns over continuity.
Wittich remained for the rest of the races in 2022. It remains to be seen what happens in 2023 when 24 races are currently scheduled.
