Max Verstappen was able to overtake Lewis Hamilton on the last lap of the last race of 2021.
The inquiry into the biggest crisis to hit Formula 1's governing body began this week.
The new president of the F1 team bosses held talks with the Mercedes team principal on Friday as part of a series of meetings to find a solution to the controversy surrounding the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
There are still questions as to whether the organisation fully understands the threat to its credibility created by this situation, as well as the timeline of the inquiry stages laid out by the FIA on Thursday.
Michael Masi, race director of the F1 team, failed to apply the rules correctly during a safety-car period at the end of the season, which resulted in the world championship changing hands.
Lewis Hamilton was on his way to win it. When the race was resumed under questionable circumstances, Max Verstappen snatched it from him.
The row is not about who won the world title. It's about fair competition.
The man who was appointed to apply the rules seemed to make them up as he went along, under the stress of both title-contending teams. The integrity of the sport has been called into question.
It has become clear that Hamilton is unhappy with the situation and will not make a decision on his future in F1 until he sees how the FIA is going to deal with it.
The governing body will need substantive action to rebuild Hamilton's trust.
The most successful driver of all time walking away from the sport because he doesn't trust the governing body of F1 is an alternative the FIA could face.
If the FIA did not know it was facing a crisis, it would.
What is the focus of the investigation?
Three days after Abu Dhabi, the FIA promised an inquiry. Work on it did not start until last week. The meeting between Ben and Wolff happened a month after the Abu Dhabi race. Some in the sport find the delay inexplicable and even allow for Christmas.
The idea is that the issue would go away as time went on. The idea has been dismissed by Hamilton's intervention.
Mercedes prefer not to comment, and the FIA has failed to respond to requests as to how the meeting went with Wolff.
Wolff left the president under no illusions about how Mercedes feel about what transpired, and laid down some of his expectations for ways to move forward.
The position of Masi is central to this. The Abu Dhabi controversy was the biggest of his time as race director.
Masi is liked by a lot of people. The consistency and clarity of decision-making was a complaint from drivers and teams. Masi has lost the trust of many of the teams and drivers in his professional role.
A new race director seems to be a minimum starting point for any reorganisation.
It is hard to imagine how the new season would start with Hamilton in a Mercedes and Masi still running race control. It doesn't look like a sustainable situation in the wake of Abu Dhabi.
If Masi stayed in his role, the controversy would likely continue, because the next mistake would drag it up all over again.
The Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen F1 title drama is on.
What will happen next?
After meeting with all the F1 team principals, Ben will be able to see where they stand on the issues raised in Abu Dhabi.
The detail of the inquiry will be undertaken by the secretary general of the FIA.
The use of the safety car will be discussed at a meeting of the sporting directors of all the F1 teams on 19 January.
It will be made clear to him that Masi failed to operate the rules as he should have, and that ways to ensure the sporting regulations are clear up will be discussed.
On a date not yet made public, Bayer will have a discussion with all the drivers.
The way Masi and F1 officials failed to handle racing incidents in a consistent way will likely be the topic of discussion.
McLaren's Lando Norris said that the safety car was made for TV, and his team-mate Daniel Ricciardo said that he was glad he wasn't part of it.
They will want to discuss Verstappen's tendency to force rivals off the track when racing them, expecting them to make way for him, and leaving them the decision to either crash or give way.
The issue came to a head after the Brazilian GP, when Verstappen went in so fast defending his lead against Hamilton that both went off the track.
The rest of the drivers didn't understand how Verstappen was not punished. Most of the drivers believed that the rules forbade them from forcing rivals off the track, so they sought clarity from Masi on what was allowed in similar situations.
They said they didn't get that clarity. Verstappen received a penalty at the next race in Saudi Arabia.
Many drivers were upset at the end of the season because they didn't know what would be acceptable in wheel-to-wheel situations.
The F1 Commission, which includes the team bosses, will be presented with the analysis by Bayer in early February.
The proposal to review and improve the organisation of the F1 structure was presented by Bayer.
It is thought that this means a decision on whether Masi retains his job, and also ways to ensure that the race director receives more support, and less distraction during grands prix. There is no date for this again.
Does the time frame work? The outline of the inquiry published by the FIA seemed to operate with no regard for the new season.
The final decisions will be announced at the World Motor Sport Council on March 18.
This is the first day of practice for the race. The first pre-season test is on February 23.
Can the teams go into the first running of their new cars without knowing who they will be dealing with at the FIA on both sporting and technical matters?
If a new race director is appointed, they will need time to prepare.
And then there is Hamilton. After driving his car for the first time, or after the first practice day of the new season, he can't make a decision on his future.
The picture of the way F1 will change as a result of the Abu Dhabi controversy will have to become clear much earlier than the Friday of the Bahrain GP.
What are the likely outcomes?
The question is who will replace Masi as race director.
Scott Elkins performs the role for the DTM German touring car series and the all-electric Formula E championship.
The role of understudy to Masi had been alternating with that of Elkins. It was Masi's turn the weekend that Whiting died in Australia, so he was drafted in. Had the tragedy happened on another weekend, it would have been Elkins who would have been catapulted into the role.
It is thought that Elkins has concerns about the role in F1.
Ross Brawn has held the same title for F1 under Steve Nielsen, a former sporting director of the Renault and Williams teams.
The whole paddock would be more than capable of handling the pressures of the role, as would the 58-year-old, who is widely respected. There is no obvious reason why he would change his position.
Beyond the position of race director, there is the question of the sporting regulations.
The two articles that caused such controversy in Abu Dhabi - 48.12 and 48.13 - seem clear enough in how they lay out the sequence of events in which the race can be restarted after a safety car.
Masi found a way to interpret them differently, and the stewards were able to retrofit his explanation for rejecting Mercedes' protest on the evening after the race.
These and article 15.3 will need smoothing out. It gives the race director "overriding authority" over the clerk of the course in the operation of a number of aspects of the weekend, including the safety car. The phrase gives the race director carte blanche to do what he likes, according to some.
This is not an argument that would stand up to logic and would obviate the need for sporting regulations if the race director could operate on a whim. It needs to be eliminated from use.
The race director's position and the operation of the weekend are also included.
Team bosses will no longer be allowed to lobby the race director if the rules are not specifically banned.
Masi has lacked support for the past three years, despite the fact that Whiting had his deputy by his side.
The race director needs a better system around them to ease the load of one of the most high-pressured jobs in sport.
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