“Heads gone.”
Hey folks, Dre here, and welcome to the penultimate Dre’s Race Review of 2024, and it’s on F1’s mindfuck in Qatar, where apparently, a Grand Prix may have taken place, even though I’m not entirely sure at this point, because my head is on Mars after the FIA became the entire main character of this race weekend. Let’s get into it. And grab a Monster, this is going to be a long one.
Shut Up And Dribble
I’ve tried putting this off, thinking, “Is this worth covering?” but it’s reached critical mass. Seriously, what the fuck is going on with the FIA here?
Yet more FIA firings marred the week leading up to the Qatar Grand Prix. This time, the unfortunate victims were Janette Tan, the Deputy Race Director who was set to inherit Rui Marques’ job handling F2 and F3 next season, and Tim Mayer, a 15-year veteran steward. According to The Guardian, Tim was fired by text message after FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem took exception to a “right to review” filed due to the US GP track invasion, and allegedly, accusations of a conflict of interest as Mayer was the organiser of the race and led the appeal into the $350,000 suspended fine issued to the track.
Mayer went scorched earth into the firing, saying: “For a federation that relies on volunteers to fire by text somebody who has made a significant contribution does not speak well of the management of the federation. Being an organiser is a role that I have fulfilled, benefiting the FIA, for over 12 years. This isn’t new. In spite of the matter being resolved quietly and amicably, he’s still upset and decided to fire me. After 15 years of volunteering my time as a steward, a decade teaching other stewards and hundreds of hours volunteering in other roles, I got a text from one of his assistants.”
“They’re running out of people to do these jobs.”
The reality is, this is nothing new from Ben Sulayem. Since becoming FIA President entering 2022, there have been many high-profile firings. Niels Wittich was sacked without reason after the Brazilian GP. Fun fact: He was stewarding GT World Challenge’s finale in Jeddash yesterday. Eduardo Freitas, the other race director, left after the Japan 2022 Fiasco with Pierre Gasly and the tractor on track. Paoli Bassari, the FIA’s compliance director. Natalie Robyn, the company’s first woman as CEO, left after 18 months. Sporting Director Steve Nielsen, Technical Director Tim Goss, Deborah Mayer the commissioner for women.
At what point is it fair to wonder whether the leadership of the man at the top is the real issue here?
As I write this section, Ben Sulayem got to speak to my colleague Jon Noble at Autosport and it’s safe to say he was combative in questions asked about the staff turnover and dismissed any idea of the drivers being concerned. “None of their business. Sorry. With all respect, I am a driver. I respect the drivers. Let them go and concentrate on what they do best, which is race.”. In my opinion, when you have drivers leading an association that works with the governing body regularly, and they’re writing an open letter about being disrespected, it’s reasonable to ask for transparency and clarifications in good faith. To essentially tell the drivers: “Shut up and race”, is not a good look, even if you think you have the numbers that only come out when the journalists probe you.
Take his claim for instance that he’s given out 10.6 million euros in grassroots Motorsport funding across 85 countries. Sounds great until you do the maths and realise that’s 120 grand per country. That’s… not that much. I get it, the FIA is a non-profit and a lot of its work comes from volunteers, but that’s a drop in the bucket relatively speaking.
You know what’s doubly frustrating about this? I want to bat for Ben Sulayem at times. He’s bullish and combative, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I like the fact he batted for Andretti and tried to grow the grid. I liked the fact he wasn’t afraid to be critical of the commercial rights side of the sport and his fair concern around Bloomberg’s reporting that F1 could be sold off to Saudi Arabia. I think the sport needs a bit of that so that one side doesn’t run completely rampant in how the sport is run.
He has genuinely pushed to make the FIA a more diverse workplace via the Robyn hire and has gone out of his way to put pressure on social media sites to better combat abuse. There’s good stuff here, even if some of it doesn’t make for sexy headlines.
But there have also been more than valid criticisms that would end careers for lesser men. The antiquated sexist comments on his old website. The clumsy handling of penalties that seem petty, like jewellery and underwear. Banning political activism within the sport while causally inviting Donald Trump into the paddock, the racist undertones of his comments on drivers swearing, as well as the high levels of turnover from within the organisation and subsequent criticisms from those departed.
That Noble interview was staggering, startling. For a man who claims he isn’t bothered by outside criticisms of his leadership, he seemed awfully bothered by outside criticisms of his leadership. In a roundabout way, he even implied that he lives rent-free in the heads of the haters, including the British media. Which… Come on, man. It’s a human version of the famous “Dril” tweet where he said: “I’m not owned, I’m not owned, as you shrink into a corncob”. MBS right now is coming off like a power-hungry dictator who’s alienating every other stakeholder in the sport, from the drivers to the commercial wing to the organisers and the fans. And it’s clear the tension’s rising amongst the affected parties.
I’m going to wrap this section up here because there’s another piece of the puzzle that ties into Qatar that I want to focus on, but I do fear for the future of the FIA on a macro level if this is this kind of management that we see on the outside. Because as I always say – If this is what the public sees, what the heck is going on internally?
NOKWAPI – No-one knows what a penalty is
It’s hard not to talk about the Qatar Grand Prix via the context of stewarding and penalties. It marred and became the running theme of the entire weekend. Even before it started, we had more of a conclusion to the discussions between the GPDA and the FIA on driving standards and the words that stood out most from Drivers Rep George Russell was:
“I don’t think it’s rocket science, I think we all feel the same way. If you’re overtaking on the inside, you make the corner and you’re not running off, it’s your corner. You want to see hard racing. You want to see drivers battling wheel to wheel. It looks awesome when people are going through the gravel and sparks are being flown up.
“I think the stewards recognise that. If you’re on the outside being overtaken, it’s on you to yield.1
“Right now there is a line in the regulations that says the inside driver needs to leave room to the guy on the outside from the apex to the exit. That’s going to be getting binned off, and I hope it’s going to be from this weekend onwards.”
Now, in my interpretation, this doesn’t actually change much when comparing it to the Austin situation that started these conversations. Remember, Norris tried the outside when trying to pass Verstappen in Austin. Max outbroke himself intentionally to make the apex first and then run Norris off the road. Russell’s interpretation of the changes now mean that if Max makes the apex first, he has right of way, and now he has the legal right to run someone off the track as long as he keeps two wheels on himself. It leaves the defender on the inside still able to exploit the right of way, and I think this will come up again if someone races you hard at the apex as the attacker on the outside is no longer entitled to space.
It’s now going to be legal to run someone four wheels off to defend position. The Verstappen Amendment I’ve joked about since 2019 in these posts, is now likely to be cemented in the book. Good luck passing anyone on the outside if you deal with an aggressive defender, and we know F1 has its fair share of those.
I don’t like it. I don’t think it’s a fair balance between attack and defence in F1. And I think it’s actually anti-racing and leads to LESS wheel-to-wheel driving because the inside line is now far too powerful unless the drivers themselves are fair. And we don’t even know yet when the rules will actually come into effect – Remember that, it becomes important later.
George Russell is not your friend. He’s not in this to promote the entertainment side of the sport. He’s in this for himself and for the other drivers. Let’s not forget, George has been one of the sports most aggressive drivers in recent years and has had no problem rushing the apex and sticking his nose in gaps where it’s not needed. It turns out that the style of racing that so many questioned Max Verstappen for by putting him on a plinth, is exactly what the drivers actually wanted. Funny that.
Things got weirder after qualifying as Max Verstappen was given a unique one-place grid penalty (The first in four years in F1), for driving too slowly during Q3. The wording on the stewards report was bizarre, with arguable mitigation on both sides of the aisle. On one hand, Verstappen was clearly below the required delta time between Safety Car marks. However, the statement acknowledges that Verstappen let Norris and Alonso through earlier in the lap, which usually mitigates a breach if done in good faith. Yes, his block on Russell on the racing line could have been potentially dangerous, but both men weren’t on push laps, and the stewards also acknowledged that Russell could clearly see Max.
For me, that’s a wash and even if it isn’t, the lack of further explanation into some of those mitigating factors mentioned above means its a hazy precedent going forward as to what would be enough to warrant a penalty, even if it’s not a push lap. On any level, it’s very peculiar to see this kind of process towards an incident and with a new race director in tow in charge, it’s hard to say whether this is the new nor-
As for the race itself, oh boy. The headline case was Alex Albon’s wing mirror falling off in the middle of the home straight. A VSC wasn’t called, despite an initial double-waved yellow on the straight as Verstappen and Norris are fighting for the lead just a couple of seconds apart. Max slows for the zone, Lando doesn’t. Lando gets hit for a 10-second stop and go penalty for ignoring double-waved yellows and it completely takes him out of contention for the win, dropping him to eventually finish in tenth.
It wasn’t until Valtteri Bottas ran over the broken wing mirror and laid out a string of shattered carbon fibre did the problems really start – With Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz both taking punctures as they ran over the debris, and only then did the Safety Car come out.
I’m sorry but this is completely unacceptable from race director Rui Marques. The logic of leaving it because it’s “offline” is pointless because cars will always pass in the middle of the track. Someone was always going to hit that piece eventually. The right thing to do would be to immediately call a VSC and get a marshal to remove the mirror. Instead we got two cars damaged and a suspended race for far longer as a direct result of Marques’ negligence.
This moment is exactly why we need greater transparency and full explanations from the Race Director. I said in my November Ask Dre piece that even for all the shit we give NASCAR who are debatably every bit as sus with their decision making, at least Elton Sawyer, their VP of officiating, sits down, talks to the media and explains the decision-making process. Even if you disagree, at least you get their perspective. The Race Director never has to answer to any of us.
BREAKING: Since me writing this, the FIA WILL be putting an explainer together about their decisions in this race. There might be a follow-up in the week. Good to see though, I think this needs to be the norm.
The worst part is, I agree with most of the calls that came about as a result of it. Norris getting a 10-second stop and go for ignoring double-yellow is absolutely valid, it happened when Mazepin and Latifi did it in Austria in 2021, it’s not unheard of at all given the seriousness of the penalty involved. Remember – Double Yellows say: “Be prepared to stop”. Norris drove through that zone at 190mph. There was backlash against Lewis Hamilton getting a Drive-Through Penalty for speeding in the pitlane. It’s normally five seconds, but LH was 12kph over the 80kph limit. WAY over.
The more creative use of the rulebook for punishments is understandable and I’m not against it in a vacuum. But when we as an audience have seen four race directors in as many years and are still struggling to find any consistency in these calls, it’s going to be a shock to the system either way. The issues here are the delays in calling for a Safety Car in the first place, and the politics of replacing a Race Director 21 races into a 24 round season.
So yes, to borrow a phrase I’ve used with MotoGP Race Reviews – NOKWAPI. No one knows, what a penalty is. Do you?
The Lightning Round
It genuinely sucks that Max Verstappen’s brilliant drive is relegated to Lighting Round status. Take nothing away from them, this was peak Red Bull brilliance. Horrible in the Sprint, car looked like a Bronco. Worked on it after Parc Ferme reopened, qualified on pole provisionally, and then held off Lando Norris all afternoon in front of him. Even beat him clean wheel-to-wheel at Turn 1 and kept the car on track too. Brilliant across the board from Red Bull.
However, Sergio Perez is still (mostly) cheeks. He gets a partial exemption for his car dying while running in an actually reasonable sixth place. However, his Sprint was painful. Eliminated in Q1 in the shootout, and then mugged by fellow pit-lane starter Franco Colapinto in the pit lane exit because Perez didn’t leave the pitlane when it turned green. Perez wanted to leave a gap, Colapinto had other ideas. Jesus Christ.
McLaren… phew. After leading every lap of the Sprint Race, Norris gave teammate Oscar Piastri the Sprint Win over the line by intentionally slowing down as a make good from Brazil. Even with him ignoring a team order not to do it. If you ever need an example about how much finishing second in the drivers championship or how much a sprint win matters, well…
And with the batshit craziness of that race, McLaren’s Constructors Championship lead is down to just 21 points. It’s a longshot for Ferrari, but not unthinkable. And Ferrari were pretty strong in Abu Dhabi last year.
Alpine giveth, Alpine taketh away. A brilliant fifth place by Pierre Gasly to hold off Carlos Sainz has put them back into the sixth place spot they lost in Vegas. On the other, it looks like Esteban Ocon is gone early from the team due to a disagreement over an early test for Haas post-season. With potentially $20m on the line next weekend, we sure now’s the time to give Jack Doohan his GP debut?
Lewis Hamilton, out-paced by Sergio Perez, half a second behind Russell in qualifying, and then a DTP for speeding in pitlane during a Safety Car. NOW is it fair to say he’s checked out?
Also, Max Verstappen saying he lost all due respect for George Russell for how hard he tried to hit him with a penalty on Saturday night. I wonder if given his role in the GPDA, Russell’s letting the clout go to his head? Reminds me of an old kids show I watched.
Congrats to Abbi Pulling on winning the F1 Academy title and getting a fully-funded GB3 seat courtesy of Rodin. It’s a nice prize (Shame it’s not FRECA like last year), but given Race 2 was cancelled needlessly due to barrier repairs, just 13 races have taken place this season, down from 21. The prize isn’t as good, and the product is still painful to watch with their F1-esque rear wings… changes I think need to be made for 2025.
And speaking of the fence – It wasn’t fixed properly at all, they just put concrete in front of it instead. Completely unacceptable from the marshals and the organisers and the F2 Feature Race and subsequent F1 races were not safe.
Dre’s Race Review – 6/10 (Decent): Look, if nothing else, I can’t call this one boring. It was looking more like a timed rally at the start, but the chaotic drama of the second half of the race amped up the level of excitement. Even if it made me feel somewhat uncomfortable that that’s what it took for a race to be considered watchable. Qatar is a bike track. Running super-high downforce cars around it with everything being third to fifth gear corners don’t make for good racing. See you in Abu Dhabi and thank GOD this is almost over.
