The second to last race of the season in Qatar was eventful even when it wasn't.

Explain.  Well, the race started from a grid that penalized World Champion Max Verstappen 1 grid penalty for "impeding" George Russell on a late flying qualifying lap in Q3 of the Qualifying Round.  Did he impede Russell?  Absolutely.  Was it worth a grid penalty?  I'm not sure.  I mean cars get in each others way all the time and this is the first such penalty I can recall this season for that.  So I'm thinking it likely wasn't needed, but I think the FIA Stewards (the group around the Grand Prix with the authority to levy penalties).

So, Verstappen started 2nd and Russell was on Pole.  When they met in the Steward's Office to discuss it the most interesting bit of that was Verstappen said "he's lost all respect for Russell".  Well I've heard MANY racing championship drivers make similar statements and most of the time it is to pump themselves up and give them an edge against their competition.  Michael Jordan was the MASTER at this.  So I don't think Verstappen dislikes Russell, he just used him to get the venom going for the race.

And boy did he ever.  At the standing Start Verstappen passed Russell and held off Norris. So Russell lost 2 places in the first corner.  Then Ocon and Colipinto spun and ended their day in the first corner.  It really can be a brutal sport.  I think Williams (Colipinto's team) has had 16 wrecks on the year.  Can you imagine the bill for that?  Wow!

They mostly jostled around behind Verstappen and Norris, who kept Verstappen honest but couldn't quite catch the Red Bull.  Then there was a "Double Yellow Flag".  First I've ever heard of this meaning yellow in only one part of the track.  It was on the straight when a car lost it's side mirror, but luckily it stayed in tact, but was right on the left side of the straight and was a problem if cars ran over it.  Conventional wisdom would tell you to issue a full yellow flag for this.  Why?  That debris isn't going anywhere until you remove it.  Come on FIA!  In the meantime, Verstappen lost about 0.6 seconds to Norris in this initial event (it's a long time in F1).  And Verstappen was all over his radio saying Norris didn't lift (meaning in the double yellow zone all drivers are required to slow in that imediate area).  On replay Norris did not lift so a penalty should be issued.  It was, but MAN a 10 second stop and go penalty... Come on ref!  That is extremely excessive in my book.  Would they have given Verstappen the same penalty if reversed?  If just don't think so.  I think a 5 second penalty was sufficient there, but it sent Norris to last on the grid.  He did well to fight back to 10 after the roughly 36 second penalty.

Lewis Hamilton can't make time move fast enough.  The 7 time world champion just has been out of sort of late.  To make matters worse, he is getting beat by his teammate nearly every race now; something that is just a big thing in F1 that I wish wasn't.  I mean to call someone you are expected to beat every race your "teammate" seems inappropriate for how F1 views this.  I'm much more of a WE vs THEM guy, but I guess that's the American in me.  Last thing on Hamilton, he was penalized on a speeding penalty in the pits so he had to serve a drive through penalty.  When he came in he requested to park and retire the car.  Basically to quit.  His chief mechanic said "NO" and he kept going.  After the race, he offered an official apology to the team.  He's just done and ready to move on.  But there is still one race to go.  Hang in Lewis!

The Constructors Championship is really the last battle to fight.  With McLaren (640) and Ferrari (619) fighting at the top and Alpine (59), HAAS (54) and RB (46) fighting in the midfield.

With Norris gone to the showers with the stop n go penalty, Verstappen cruised home to win in Qatar.  First win since Austria.  I think he wanted that one to let all the teams know that he's still going to be around next season.  Charles LeClerc drove a silently great race for Ferrari, who out performed Norris's McLaren teammate Piastri who came home on the podium in 3rd.  George Russell just can't catch a break really as his team spit the bit and coughed up a terrible 7 second pit stop as he surely should have been on the podium.  

But my man Pierre Gasley, carried the Alpine flag beautifully and held off a changing Carlos Sainz for Ferrari for 5th.  A great effort and haul of points for Alpine.  He may have just earned them 10 million in one race.  Well done.

Also tip of the cap to Zhou Guanyu of Kick Sauber who earned the teams first points of the entire season coming in 8.  Happy for those guys.  It's a tough road being last most races.  Same thing happened last season where they started to get better at the end of the year.  Good luck next week.

LAST race of the year next week in Abu Dhabi.  It's been a long year, but a really fun one too!

Another tid bit of information that is important for F1 fans.  Last week an "application" was accepted by the FIA from Cadillac/GM to pursue an 11th team on the Grid.  HUGE news.  This project is set to go live in the 2026 season.  The same season with new regulations and also Audi coming live and taking over from Kick Sauber.  Going to be Wild!

Some scuttlebutt of this is that the Andretti Family (mostly Michael Andretti) put in with Cadillac, but that application was rejected.  Some say Mario Andretti was approached by Bernie Ecclestone (the F1 Supremo) at a fancy shindig and told one of the greatest racers of all time that he would never get into F1 as long as he was alive.  Not sure what's that's about, but could it be true?

Another angle I've heard is Michael Andretti is seen by may Europeans as really brash and arrogant when he spoke about getting an F1 team.  Could that be more of the reason?

Who knows, but I think the first one above is more likely a long time ago and the later one is more likely now.

Either way, who cares as long as an American Team (even thought it will be based as Silverstone in England) is on the grid with a chance to compete!  Going to be fun!

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was the final stop on the 2024 F1 Championship.  With Max Verstappen already claiming the Drivers' Championship that only left the Constructors Championship to be decided between McLaren and Ferrari.  The McLaren cars earned the edge in Qualifying going 1 and 2 with Lando Norris on pole and Oscar Piastri sliding just behind in second.  Carlos Sainz did well to pull right behind the papaya cars in 3rd.  But in terrible news for Ferrari teammate Charles LeClerc got a lap time taken away for exceeding track limits and then another grid penalty to be pushed all the way down in 19th spot to start the race.  

There was a second level of Constructors to be determined with Alpine trying to hold off Haas for 6th spot.  It's about 15 million on the line there.

So, at the standing start of the race, Norris led the field into Turn 1 with his teammate behind, but Max Verstappen, starting in 4th, cut across the first corner, nearly got along side Piastri, but his speed into the corner could not be totally controlled and he hit the Australian and spun him round and also dropped Verstappen.  The stewards would correctly levy a 10 second penalty for causing a collision to Verstappen.  In 2025, Max Verstappen is going to have be more controlled.  Going to be interesting. 

But that would not be the only contact today.  Piastri trying to get back around the field since he got pushed to the back ran into the back of the Williams of Franco Collipinto and also got a 10 second penalty.  Valteri Botas trying to hold a position spun the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez and would also get a 10 second penalty.

The final story of this grand prix was on Lewis Hamilton the 7-time GREAT Champion driving his final race for Team Mercedes.  He had terrible luck in qualifying and got stuck all the way back at position 18 to start the race.  But he drove a magnificent race and pipped his teammate George Russell in the 2nd to last turn of the race to earn 4th place.  He was very emotional after the race, and you could tell it really meant something to him.  The crowd was chanting "Lewis, Lewis" when Norris had won the race.  Oh yeah, back to that!

While all this spinning and penalties were going on Norris led out front with Carlos Sainz driving very well just a few seconds behind.  Charles LeClerc was hard charging behind the scenes, and he drove well but 3rd place was the highest he could hope for today and that's where he ended.  This was a 1 stop race.  Sainz pitted first and charge super hard and really too hard on his new hard tyres coming out of the pits trying to put pressure on Norris.  But it just didn't work as Norris simply had the better car today.  So, Norris takes the checkered flag in first and Carlos Sainz finishes his Final race for Ferrari coming home a very respectable second place.

So, the Constructors Championship ends with McLaren narrowly beating Ferrari and winning the Constructors Championship for the first time since 1998.  Impressive.  Also, Pierre Gasly comes home in 7th place.  One spot ahead of the Haas of Nico Hulkenburg to claim 6th spot in the constructors.  Well done!

So, there you have it!   Another great F1 Season in the books!

The 2025 F1 Season should be wide open with the top 4 teams of Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes! 

For Red Bull, Verstappen is back, but who will be his teammate.  Red Bull can't be happy being 3rd in the Constructors Championship, but Perez was poor the second half of the season as he got spun today and did not finish another race in the second Red Bull.

For McLaren, they seem hungry and have a great team with Norris and Piastri.

For Ferrari, it will be a new show with Lewis Hamilton showing up at a track near you in all Red for the dancing ponies!  How will he interact with Charles LeClerc?  Going to be interesting!

For Mercedes, it will be the George Russell show now, and new super young driver Antonelli gets the big step up from F2.

It's 98 days away sports fans!  Can't wait! 

F1 quickly moved to driver test runs at Abu Dhabi track just a few days after the end of the 2024 season last Sunday.  And true to form Carlos Sainz rose up the leaderboards earned a second place entry just 1 tenth behind his former teammate Charles LeClerc and 2 tenths higher than his new teammate Alex Albon.

The Spaniard can flat out drive and Red Bull missed BIG time on him IMO.

Going to be interesting how this plays out.  Sainz is still in a Williams when is a mid-pack car at best right now.  No doubt.  Plus Abu Dhabi suits their current car really well right now.  BUT, Williams finished 11th (Albon) and Franco Colapinto didn't finish the race after poor luck getting hit from behind by Piastri.  What I'm saying is Sainz being second and competing at the sharp end of the grid is A LOT better than they were just a few days ago.

It's similar to Verstappen at Red Bull.  He pulls all the energy out of the car that is possible in it IMO.  Compared to Sergio Perez who honestly is a decent driver it is Competing for Wins vs a mid-pack car and the driver makes ALL that difference.