Mercedes have been told that a fresh appeal to change the outcome of Sunday’s race could ultimately be successful, with sports law specialist Nicholas Bamber suggesting that the Silver Arrows could make a convincing argument to see Lewis Hamilton retrospectively awarded the Drivers’ Championship title.
“In response to Mercedes’ protest, they [the FIA] concluded that Article 15.3 gives the race director carte blanche to control the use of the safety car and overrides the procedure for the safety car stipulated at Article 48.12,” Bamber told Racefans.
“This interpretation seems, on its face, to be inconsistent with a plain language view of the regulations.
“It also directly contradicts Michael Masi’s approach in similar circumstances at the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix, where he stated ‘there is a requirement in the sporting regulations to wave all the lapped cars past’ before the safety car returns to the pit lane and the race recommences, ‘therefore the safety car period was a bit longer than what we would have normally wanted’.