Red Bull's Helmut Marko has paid tribute to Mercedes for its "grand gesture" in not appealing the Abu Dhabi stewards decision.

The German team's announcement on Thursday morning, hours before the prize-giving gala, cleared the way for Red Bull and Max Verstappen to celebrate their Drivers' Championship victory without the threat of the appeal hanging over their heads.

"I can only say that this was a grand gesture by Mercedes," Marko tells Gazzetta dello Sport. "Hamilton has definitely been unlucky, but so were we at Silverstone, in Budapest and in Baku," he adds. "This is how races can go, but I understand the disappointment."

The Austrian also weighed into the ongoing row over race director, Michael Masi hoping that under its new president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the FIA will do more to assist him.

"The new FIA president will have to come up with a new system that will help Masi, because he can't do it alone," says Marko.

"At the moment there is too much pressure on his shoulders. I think, for example, that team managers and team bosses should no longer be able to speak to Masi through a direct line during a race.

"In addition, the rules need to be simplified. Too many decisions have been made that have displeased either us or Mercedes. There needs to be more uniformity in the judgements."

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1. Posted by KKK, 20/12/2021 16:24

"Marko was giving Masi just as much grief as Mercedes. He is grateful that the court case because Mercedes I think would have won but left F1 in tatters, The FIA would be made too look like fools (even bigger fools that they already are). Its a sport, MV won, get on with next year. "

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2. Posted by Batman, 20/12/2021 14:55

"Mr. Masi was never let alone. "Bien au contraire" Mr. Marko. We don't know exactly how things run in the shadows but it seems that (especially in this particular case) Mr. Masi has put him self ahead of any stewarts decisions. It wasn'tt a case of luck or unluck. A decision was made and artificialy changed the sporting context. And it has nothing to do with race incidents like Silverstone 2021, China 2018; SPA 2015, Hungary 2017, Austria 2019.
"

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Marko welcomes Mercedes "grand gesture"

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