Here's the Complete FIA Statement Regarding the Mercedes-Red Bull Mess in Abu Dhabi

• On Wednesday, the FIA finally responded to the controversy surrounding the season-ending Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with an official statement.

• It was a statement of nearly 400 words in which the FIA concluded with a rather inconclusive finding that "a detailed analysis and clarification exercise for the future with all relevant parties will now take place."

• Mercedes will have an entire off-season to wonder what might have been.

Ever wonder what goes on behind the curtain at the FIA when a team protests a ruling made in regards to a Formula 1 race?

This past Sunday in Abu Dhabi, the Mercedes F1 team, driver Lewis Hamilton, and probably several million race fans worldwide were left scratching their heads after a rules interpretation basically handed Red Bull's Max Verstappen the Formula 1 championship.

The setup to the interpretation will likely be talked about in F1 circles for years.

In case you missed it, on Lap 53 of 58 and with Hamilton cruising with a double-digit seconds lead over Verstappen, the Williams car of Nicholas Latifi went into the wall. The disabled car and debris brought out a Safety Car.

Here's where it gets fun.

In between Hamilton and Verstappen were five lapped cars and as Latifi’s wreckage was cleared from the track, arguments continued between officials and team representatives over the situation. Initially, Race Control gave the message that lapped cars would not be allowed to roll post the lead car and return to to the back of the pack. But then, almost without warning, it was determined that the five cars in between Hamilton and Verstappen— rather than all eight cars who had been lapped—would be allowed to overtake the Safety Car just before the final lap.

The signal was then given to restart the race, and with Verstappen (on soft tires) allowed to position his Red Bull directly behind Hamilton's Mercedes (on older hard tires) for a one-lap shootout. Hamilton was a sitting duck and Verstappen had not trouble making the pass and cruising to the win and the championship.

Mercedes argued after the race that restarting the race after just the five cars (and not the three lapped cars behind Verstappen) were allowed to pass the Safety Car was in contradiction to the Sporting Regulations, part of which reads “once the last lapped car has passed the leader the safety car will return to the pits at the end of the following lap.”

Mercedes felt that all eight cars (including three lapped cars behind Verstappen) should have also been ordered to pass the safety car before the restart. In this case, that exercise would have taken another lap to complete and thus ending the race behind the Safety Car.