As Nico Rosberg crossed the finish line at Yas Marina Circuit to claim victory in the final round of the 2015 F1 season, the skies above the track exploded with cordite and colour.
Watching from the roof terrace of a team hospitality suite in the paddock, the barrage of noise and shade was preceded by an avian exodus, all of those birds previously happily asleep in the trees fleeing what they perceived to be some form of unknown terror.
But the fireworks themselves were spectacular -- a battalion of son et lumiere that far outstripped the processional race with which we rounded off a pretty processional season.
In terms of damp squibs, however, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix paled in comparison to the end of what could have been a winter of discontent between the teams, a three-month period in which the media would have been spared the usual off-season barrel scraping that is trying to drum up stories when the rest of the world is either building race cars (F1 world) or getting mightily sick of food and family (everyone else in the known universe).
The news that Mercedes had requested that the FIA (via their on-event stewards) "clarify" certain questions regarding intellectual property, listed parts, and aerodynamic testing restrictions had the F1 press corps salivating at the prospect of a winter break with an actual story to follow.
The prospect of getting comment from all ten teams plus likely interjections from both Prince's Gate and the Place de la Concorde was like manna from heaven -- a vast improvement on trawling through months-old audio files to find a usable angle to write about, as is par for the course most winters.
And then the stewards worked efficiently and logically. Not only did they deliver a series of decisions prior to the lights going out to mark the start of the final race of the season (as promised, no less!), but the eight-page document they produced was full of common sense.
"Decision 1: The decisions contained in this document have application only from today's date," the document read. "No retrospectivity shall apply. Reasons: all parties including the teams make representations, concede that there are ambiguities in the current regulations and all parties appear to have acted in good faith to attempt to address these ambiguities as they have become apparent."
It was the smart thing to do, the right thing to do, and the only decision they could have taken guaranteed to stop the story dead in its tracks.
By (genuinely) clarifying what had previously been ambiguities in the Sporting Regulations, the stewards saved themselves - and the sport as a whole - serious heartache and headache over what is ostensibly time off (and in reality anything but).
Had retrospectivity been allowed, the 2015/16 winter break would have seen endless trips back and forth to Paris for journalists and team representatives alike as all and sundry fought to clarify whether or not the teams above them in the championship standings were genuinely -- and legally -- deserving of the championship position earned (and, more importantly, in the significant amounts of money linked to each place in the standings).
Mercedes can claim a victory of sorts, in that the stewards' decisions have effectively closed up all of the loopholes the team was concerned about. The passing on of non-restricted parts (including data) is restricted, although passing on data relating to the operation of non-listed parts is permissible.
Ambiguous terms -- outsourcing, agent, related party, and subcontractor -- have now been clearly defined, and "but I thought it was okay to bend the rule this way because I didn't know any better" has now been blocked as an excuse. The relationship between teams and related parties is now clear, and it has been clearly explained that one may not exploit the resources of the other, irrespective of the direction of the flow of knowledge.
In essence, the Abu Dhabi stewards have cleared an awful lot up and in so doing have killed what could have been an interesting and long-running story. Thanks a lot! (Both seriously and sarcastically.) Now we've got a December of driver advent calendars and fantasy F1 circuits to look forward to instead.