Formula 1 2022: Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen return to the track

Three months on from the tumultuous climax to the 2021 championship, a new one begins with the shadows of that day in Abu Dhabi still hanging over the sport.

After losing an eighth world drivers' title in controversial and painful circumstances, Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes team are trying to move on, at least in public.

The man who beat him, Max Verstappen, probably starts the new season as favourite, but his Red Bull team principal Christian Horner continues to snipe, throwing various accusations at Mercedes. That they «bullied» the sport's governing body into making changes; they mounted a campaign to discredit Verstappen's title,external-link and so on.

Meanwhile, the ramifications of a day on which the sport's referee made up the rules as he went along continue to reverberate. The FIA, recognising that errors were made at Yas Marina, has indeed made changes.

A report into the events of the day is expected to be published this weekend. But already race director Michael Masi has been moved into a different role, his freestyling with the rules under extreme pressure at Yas Marina judged to have made his position untenable.

In his place, two people will alternate in a role that is not meant to be so high profile. A more robust structure has been put in place around them. And a face from the past has been brought back to try to add a little gravitas and experience.

The new race directors will be advised by Herbie Blash, F1 veteran and long-time associate of the late FIA F1 director Charlie Whiting, whose death on the eve of the 2019 season saw Masi elevated into the role he has now lost.

As if that was not enough to be going along with, the sport's rule book has been ripped up and rewritten from scratch. An all-new set of