As the championship came to an end last weekend in Abu Dhabi the final stages of the race that decided the title raised a lot of controversies for the way things were handled by the race direction.

In the aftermath Mercedes had issued two protests – one regarding an alleged overtake under Safety Car made by Verstappen and another one regarding the decision to let the five lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to unlap themselves behind the Safety immediately before the race resumed- that were both dismissed by the stewards.

The team had then announced the intention of appealing the decision, but decided to drop it just ahead of the FIA Prize Gala. Despite withdrawing the appeal, Mercedes has made its dismay clear and assured its commitment to hold the FIA accountable in order to implement a better system.

“It’s not only a decision to change the race director, the whole system of decision making needs to be improved,” commented Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff.

“The race director is certainly under big pressure. Some of that is due to our own faults.”

Although Sunday’s events resonated more intensely, as they played a decisive role in determining the championship, the occasions in which decisions seemed all over the map were numerous across this season and beyond.

“With more consistent decision making we could have avoided many of the controversies throughout the year. The last one was the decision that had the biggest impact. And from a sporting perspective a catastrophic impact because it decided the world championship,” continued Wolff.

“But now you can say all season it went back and forth and we were on the receiving end sometimes and sometimes we were more lucky.”

“I have confidence that together all of us can help make the sport stronger. I think these situations, as painful as they are, are also an opportunity to make the sport better.”

Looking back at how things played out this season, especially on occasions in which Hamilton and Verstappen came in contact, Wolff has no doubts that what FIA has to look for is a more consistent decision-making process.

“It is a wider problem because if you look at most of the controversies that have happened this year, it was about sporting decisions on the track, inconsistency in execution of the regulations on track.”

“Wanting to drive hard and to have difference of opinion among the drivers and among the team is in the nature of the game, but inconsistent decision-making leads to controversies, leads to polarisation. That was the ground for many of the totally unnecessary controversies on the track.”