Norris called out F1 over its farcical 2021 finale. Will it get it right this time?

This weekend Formula 1 will have its first championship-deciding season finale since the notorious 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

That year’s world championship fight between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton ended in bitter controversy. Formula 1 and the FIA stood accused of failing to apply their own rules correctly, affecting the outcome of the world championship as a result.

The FIA took wide-ranging action. Race director Michael Masi was fired, regulations changed and new systems introduced to prevent a repeat.

Now those changes face their greatest test as F1 returns to the scene of the drama to decide the destiny of the 2025 drivers’ title.

The dispute centred on Masi’s decision to reverse his earlier call not to allow lapped cars to rejoin the lead lap during a Safety Car period near the end of the race. On the penultimate lap Masi suddenly announced a portion of the lapped cars would be allowed to rejoin the lead lap and gave the restart immediately, both in breach of F1’s regulations as an FIA investigation subsequently confirmed.

The only drivers permitted to un-lap themselves were the five between race leader Hamilton and second-placed Verstappen. That fact, plus the sudden haste to arrange the restart – following which Verstappen passed Hamilton to win the title – prompted claims Masi had put the show before the sport.

Coincidentally, one driver who was perfectly placed to observe what was going on was today’s championship leader, Lando Norris. He led the queue of five lapped cars behind Hamilton which Masi moved out of the way. Masi told the stewards he chose to “remove those lapped cars that would ‘interfere’ in the racing between the leaders” while leaving those separating Verstappen from third-placed Sainz, and others, still a lap down.

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The decision surprised Norris as his radio messages (below) showed. After the race he made clear his view why the rules had not been followed.

“I didn’t actually know it was only the first three or four [cars] up to Max [going past],” he said. “So it was obviously made to be a fight. It was for the TV, of course. It was for the result.”

F1 went all-out to boost the audience for the first final-round title-decider since Liberty Media’s takeover of the series four years earlier. Free-to-air broadcasters in Hamilton and Verstappen’s home countries were given a rare opportunity to screen the race live and F1 later claimed over 108 million people watched.

Did what they see reflect badly on the sport? F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said the following year he did not feel it negatively affected the series’ popularity. “If you look [at] what is the follow-up on what we are having this year, it’s immense,” he said. “So if that would be so negative, I wouldn’t see the numbers of people that are coming to the races or following everywhere around the world.”

However he admitted he would rather prefer not to have such a controversial end to the season again: “From the commercial perspective, I would love to see another season where you going to arrive at the last lap of the last race – maybe with less this confrontational point – because that would be terrific.”

Following its investigation the FIA made a raft of changes to its race control procedure to prevent the same mistakes being made again. Significantly, the system of identifying which cars should be allowed to unlap themselves, which was previously done manually, was automated. It has also recruited additional staff, created a Virtual Race Control to assist the trackside division and taken steps to insulate the race director from the kind of lobbying both championship-contending teams attempted four years ago.

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But any system ultimately relies on the individual operating it to take the correct steps, as Domenicali admitted. “The FIA has taken seriously [the issue] and they want to change it and to improve the system,” he said. “But at the end of the day, the performance of all the people involved in F1 has something related to his personal capability or personal skills or personal good decision or personal mistakes. And this is something that will be always in every sport.”

The circumstances of the race will determine whether anyone faces the kind of high-pressure decision Masi confronted four years ago. If the yellow flags come out on lap 53 on Sunday, expect a sharp intake of breath.

How Norris saw the end of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Norris was running a lap down in seventh place during the Safety Car period, and discussing with race engineer Will Joseph how he could beat Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jnr and Charles Leclerc to fifth in the championship:

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