FIA: No irregular betting on Abu Dhabi after "manipulated" message

F1’s governing body announced in December that it would be launching a full investigation into the events that saw the Abu Dhabi title decider restart on the final lap after race director Michael Masi failed to implement at least two articles of the sporting regulations.

Hamilton was overtaken by Max Verstappen on the final lap of the race, with the fashion of the restart prompting Mercedes to launch a protest that was ultimately dismissed by the FIA stewards.

After being overtaken by Verstappen on the final lap, Hamilton said over the radio: “This has been manipulated, man.”

The comment came after Masi had given permission for the five cars between Hamilton and Verstappen on-track to unlap themselves, but kept the other unlapped cars behind.

It has already prompted moves to clarify the sporting regulations moving relating to safety car rules, including changing the call for “any” cars to unlap themselves to “all” cars.

It was noted in the FIA report that there could be “different interpretations” of the regulations relating to the uncapping procedure, and that the sporting regulations “would benefit from clarification”.

A footnote to this point reads: “On Lap 58/58, HAM radioed to Mercedes ‘This has been manipulated’. It is worth noting that neither the International Olympic Committee (IOC) nor Sportradar have reported any integrity concerns regarding the official betting activity on the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.”

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W12

Photo by: Erik Junius

Sportradar is an independent body that analyses data across sport, and has a bet-monitoring service called the Universal Fraud Detection System. It works with more than 600 betting operators, according to its website, and flagged suspicious activity across 10 sports last year. The company works with a number of major sporting leagues, including NASCAR, the NBA, MLB, NHL and World Snooker.

Hamilton has not expanded on his “manipulated” radio message since Abu Dhabi, but was encouraged by the FIA’s moves to improve its race operation structure to “make sure that this never happens to anybody else in the sport ever again”.

Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff said at the launch of Mercedes’ car in February that “nothing is fixed”, but that it was the “circumstances and decisions that were unprecedented” which left the team feeling aggrieved.

Hamilton said on Friday in Bahrain that he was hopeful the full findings of the FIA report would be released, having held a “good meeting” with FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem on Thursday where they agreed it was important to be transparent.