Court ruling shows: 'Mercedes would've lost Abu Dhabi 2021 case''

The 2021 Mercedes Formula One team decided not to appeal the result of the controversial Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which gave Max Verstappen his first world title. This left the question lingering: 'What would have been the outcome of such a case?'

The answer to that question seems to have been a 'no' if at least a case in Spain is taken as precedent. During a GT race, the race director made a mistake, which meant that after a safety car procedure, the drivers did not resume the race in the correct order. One of the participating teams was angry about this afterwards and started an appeal in Spain.

The team won, and the result was declared invalid. This led to protests from other participants, who then turned to the FIA's International Court of Appeal. The federation's highest judicial body decided that the race organisers' original decision - namely, to keep the result as it was - was correct.

Masi made a mistake in Abu Dhabi

As is well known, F1 race director Michael Masi made a mistake in 2021 - which the FIA later admitted - by not allowing all cars on Lewis Hamilton's lead lap to return to the same racing lap after the safety car procedure. Only the cars between Hamilton and his direct rival Verstappen were allowed to do so. With only one lap to go, Verstappen was (partly because of this) able to attack and beat Hamilton, resulting in the win and the title.

Soon after the event, which infuriated the team, Mercedes announced that they would take no further legal action. With the International Court of Appeal ruling now, one has to wonder whether a case would have had any chance of success. Most likely not.