To this woman within the FIA, Verstappen owes award of world title

Confusion abounded in the first 15 minutes after the Japanese Grand Prix. Had Max Verstappen become world champion or not? Nobody had actually taken it into account, even at Red Bull Racing itself they thought they were one World Championship point short of celebrating. Fortunately, one person at the FIA was sharp enough to discover that the rules stated that full points had to be handed out anyway and that the margin towards the competition was large enough thanks to Charles Leclerc' s time penalty.

Billingham is sharp in Japan

Emily Billingham works as a systems analyst for the FIA and was the first to realise that Verstappen was sure of the world title with four Grands Prix to go. Speaking to German BILD the British woman talks about the denouement of the Japanese GP and her role in it.

"It was clear to me that there would be full points when the race resumed. When Verstappen crossed the finish line, the championship was not yet decided," says Billingham, who at the time thought Verstappen's lead would not be big enough. However, that changed when the stewards imposed a five-second time penalty on Leclerc. "Because he dropped back to third, I realised we had a world champion," she said.

These were exciting minutes for Billingham too, as she did want to be sure. An awful lot was happening, but she managed to keep her cool. "I kept calculating because I wanted to make sure it was right for such an important decision," she said. She then informed her colleagues, who then informed Verstappen, Red Bull and the rest. According to BILD, Verstappen owes the award of the title to Billingham: "Maybe I will get a card from him with nice words."