Max Verstappen won the Qatar Grand Prix despite a dog of a sprint race and a one-spot grid penalty. That wasn’t the only penalty from the weekend. Either a 15-year drought or a 25-year drought will end in the World Constructors’ Championship. A prediction turned out to be wrong after the results in Jeddah. Elsewhere, there is some concern with FIA leadership. A Netflix show is out. People keep being impressed with the little things. However, it was a holiday weekend, and there was a lot of time to think.
A Few Random Things
The year is running out and there has been a lot to take place over 2024. There are only a few Mondays left in this year to cover a variety of topics before we go into the end of year review and preview for 2025.
There is always something to expand upon, something that requires a little more attention and time, whether it be looking for a solution or considering a decision. Some things are more important than others. However, there are a variety of topics that might not require that much time.
This week, I am going to cover a few things that have been on my mind, some serious, some not so.
For starters…
Why is Thermal included with all the other races on Wikipedia?
On Wikipedia, each driver has a season-by-season matrix of the race-by-race results. It is great, except there is one problem with the IndyCar ones.
For 2024, the exhibition race from Thermal is included. Example, here is Álex Palou’s.
Thermal wasn’t a championship race. It wasn’t the second race of the season. The 2024 season didn’t have an 18-race calendar. It is entirely misleading. I understand it should be recorded somewhere, just not as one of the championship races.
Yes, there are some rough spots in the record. Look at 2008 when Motegi and Long Beach happened on the same weekend. There was even a non-championship race that year, but take a look at how it is record. Here is Scott Dixon’s matrix from 2003 through 2008.
It notes the Motegi-Long Beach weekend, but Surfers Paradise isn’t even include though the exhibition race was held after the Chicago season finale.
Note the Thermal result elsewhere. It is ultimately irrelevant. Don’t mix it with results that could toward the record book.
No one has mentioned this but how wasn’t there a more serious penalty for Power’s loose seatbelts?
That was a massive blunder by the team and considering all the concerns about safety in IndyCar, the fact there wasn’t a more serious reprimand for this is kind of startling.
This wasn’t a minor thing. It was inexcusable that Power and his team didn’t make sure his seatbelts were properly done prior to the start of a race.
Considering in seven of the 16 IndyCar races prior to Nashville there had been an opening lap incident, Power, Team Penske and IndyCar were all lucky another one didn’t occur at Nashville. We could have witness the most horrific accident in series history is quite some time.
Though nothing happened, there should have been a stiffer penalty for such a mistake. If drivers are going to be fined for forgetting their gloves or improper underwear, forgetting to properly do the seatbelts before a race should be something serious. It should be more than a slap on the wrist.
This was worse than the Team Penske push-to-pass manipulation. The push-to-pass manipulation was never going to end in a driver being thrown from a race car. Forgetting to do the seatbelts properly significantly increases that possibility.
This should have been at least a six-figure fine, and on the higher end.
Zak Brown is right
Last week, McLaren CEO Zak Brown made a statement over rumored interest of IndyCar going to Adelaide to join the Supercars weekend. Brown said IndyCar should not go to Australia and should focus on growing in the United States.
He is right.
It would be cool for IndyCar to race at Adelaide, but IndyCar has plenty of work to do in the United States before it considers Australia, Argentina, Brazil or anywhere else in the world.
The only way it makes sense for IndyCar to go abroad is to race is if a promoter were to spend a stupid amount of money, a total that would see a fair share flow into each team’s wallet. If that is the case, IndyCar should go for it. Adelaide would not be that.
Both could be possible, but Adelaide isn’t going to help IndyCar in the long term. It needs a long term plan to spread itself across the United States. Once it does that, then it can consider the rest of the globe.
Swearing
This has been an insufferable year when it comes to Formula One and swearing.
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem wants less swearing. The drivers do not want to change. Charles Leclerc was fined for swearing after the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The general sentiment is the drivers should be allowed to express themselves and they are adults. I get that, and to be fair it isn’t the drivers that are choosing to broadcast the swearing over the radio. It is the television presenter.
The world feed doesn’t have to give us the radio bites. It chooses to do so. It could decide to present radio bites without any swearing or limited swearing. It is on Formula One Management. FOM a could just decided to stop broadcasting the swearing and then this is a non-issue.
However, let’s not act like we need the swearing. Sure, it is going to happen, but swearing doesn’t make it better. It doesn’t make it more passionate. You can enjoy the races without it. There were decades when you didn’t hear the bleeps during radio messages, don’t you remember? Those times you consider golden? You would live without them today.
Champions From the Weekend
The #51 AF Corse - Francorchamps Motors Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi and Alessio Rovera clinched the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup with a third-place finish in the 6 Hours of Jeddah.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about Max Verstappen, but did you know…
The #48 Mercedes-AMG Team Mann-Filter Mercedes-AMG of Lucas Auer, Maro Engel and Daniel Morad won the 6 Hours of Jeddah.
Oliver Bearman (sprint) and Paul Aron (feature) split the Formula Two races from Qatar.
Corey Day would the Turkey Night Grand Prix from Ventura Raceway.
Coming Up This Weekend
The conclusion of the Formula One season from Abu Dhabi.
The conclusion of the Super GT season in Suzuka.
The Formula E season opens in São Paulo.
The Asian Le Mans Series season opens with a doubleheader in Sepang.
