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Mercedes reserve driver Stoffel Vandoorne says the FIA didn’t follow the rules in the finale of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and he thinks Lewis Hamilton “was robbed”.
Mercedes’ Formula E driver, and F1 reserve driver, Stoffel Vandoorne was asked to give his opinion on the controversial finish of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
“The way the title was decided is not correct,” the Belgian driver told Rétro F1.
“There are clear rules for the Safety Car procedure and they were not followed. Lewis had driven a perfect race and the team also came through with the strategy.
“Everything was perfect, and then there is this decision [to let some of the lapped cars through and to bring the Safety car in immediately].
“This changed the result of the race and therefore of the championship, and that is very hard to take.
“And then in this last lap it was clear that nothing went in Hamilton’s favor: he had old tires against Verstappen in new rubber.
“Lewis had no chance and in my opinion it was not really a race in the end.”
Vandoorne was then asked if he believes that the race result was “manipulated”, as Lewis said to his race engineer in the last lap of the race.
“I don’t think the result was manipulated. I just think the race management didn’t want the Grand Prix to end under the Safety Car and to finish the championship like this.
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“But there are rules to follow after the Safety Car comes out. They let the lapped cars pass, but they should have done one more lap [and therefore the race would end under the safety car] and they did not do so.
“So, yeah, as far as this scenario goes, I think Lewis was robbed, but the title was not lost in the last lap of the last Grand Prix.
“Let’s remember that at the start of the season Mercedes wasn’t performing well enough and lacked pace against Red Bull who took the opportunity to widen the gap.”
Mercedes ultimately decided not to appeal the decisions made in Abu Dhabi, and Stoffel says he is not surprised.
“Honestly, I’m not surprised Mercedes withdrew their appeal. For sport, it really wouldn’t have been good if the title was decided in court.
“So in a sporting sense, it’s good that the situation ended there. But I think it shows Mercedes didn’t agree with what happened and the team still thinks they were right.
“They still needed to get justice, but a victory clearly wouldn’t have tasted the same,” concluded Vandoorne.
