Former F1 world champion Nico Rosberg struck part of the battle between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen in Abu Dhabi on Sunday, highlighting an element between Mercedes, Red Bull and the FIA that should be resolved next season. Going into the race on points, the duo settled their title battle in a controversial and dramatic way.
It was Verstappen who prevailed as the winner and sealed his first championship crown with an overtaking maneuver at the last second.
The title appeared to have been sewn by Hamilton, who barely got a foot wrong until Nicholas Latifi’s late accident got the safety car out.
The safety car was cleared for the remaining lap and FIA race director Michael Masi controversially let the lapped cars pass between Hamilton and Verstappen.
That paved the way for an epic one-lap shootout, and after opportunistically pitting for a new set of soft tires, Verstappen used his advantage to overtake the Mercedes man and reach the checkered flag.
But Masi’s decision to evacuate the cars that separate the title protagonists was not without controversy.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff was seen and heard begging the race director to reconsider his decision before being bluntly shut down.
The Silver Arrows protested after the race and, when rejected, announced their intention to appeal and contest the result.
An alleged amicable text message between Verstappen and Wolff suggests Mercedes could take defeat soon, but the whole ordeal has exposed something that Rosberg, a former Hamilton team-mate, believes has been corrected.
“We have to take into account the communication – that was broadcast – between the two teams and race director Michael Masi,” he told Sky Sports.
“It sounds like he’s being pressured by Red Bull to do things.
“Obviously you can hear Christian coming on the radio, saying to the referee ‘Hey, we just need one more race lap’, that’s not ideal.
“That’s the kind of thing we have to try for next year to get rid of it.
“You shouldn’t talk to the referee at all. That wouldn’t happen in football. You can’t let the manager call the referee all the time during the game. It doesn’t work.”
“We have to really clean something like that next year and also with the whole overtaking thing.
“There has to be a suitable framework in which we can keep things really understandable.”
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