Last Updated on September 23 2024, 3:13 am

The 2024 Singapore Grand Prix weekend was dominated over a row about the FIA’s new clampdown on swearing. Max Verstappen at the Thursday official FIA press conference dropped the F-bomb in conversation and was hit by the race stewards with a days worth of community service.

The world champion hit back at F1’s governing body by refusing to answer questions in the FIA post qualifying press conference. Max preferred to invite the journalists outside after the media event had finished to then speak his mind.

Verstappen threatened such petty moves by the FIA could force him to leave the sport and pursue other motorsport activities. “These kind of things definitely decide my future, if you can’t be yourself or you have to deal with these silly things,” Verstappen aged just 26 said.

 

 

 

Verstappen threatens to quit F1

“I will always be myself. I will not change how I am in my life. At one point when it’s enough it’s enough. Racing will go on, and F1 will go on without me,” threatened the Dutch driver.

On track Max demonstrated why he is a tri0ole times world champion. Despite having a car which Sergio Perez could not get through to final qualifying, Verstappen pulled out a stunning lap to start alongside pole sitter Lando Norris at the front of there grid.

Norris who had five previous pole positions in his F1 had  failed to lead the race each time after lap one. This time Lando nailed the perfect start and cruised into turn one ahead of his rival for the title and the rest of the field. Norris then gapped the RB20 of Verstappen at around 0,5 seconds a lap such that certain TV pundits pondered whether he was burning his medium compound tyres too quickly.

But Norris was not pushing and when the order came for him to press on, the MCL38 show its true turn of speed increasing the gap to oner second a lap over Verstappen.

Renault talks over F1 factory continue

 

 

 

Red Bull into the F1 details

Max enjoyed a lonely race, gapping the Mercedes at a similar rate to that which Norris was extending his lead over the Red Bull driver. Lewis Hamilton who started P3 risked it all on a set of soft tyres at the start in the hope he would take the lead from the two cars ahead of him at the start line.

The strategy backfired badly as Hamilton had to hit earlier than his rivals and run a forty plus lap spin on the hard tyre. The seven times world champion fell through the field and finished in sixth, while his team mate who started one place behind Lewis ran the best strategy he could which saw him finish where he started in fourth place.

Norris was in a league of his own and had claimed the fastest lap of the race on his fresh second set of tyres. Such was his dominance he could have pitted with two laps to go and come out ahead of Verstappen and attempt to claim the fastest lap and the Grand Chelm Pole, the race win and the fastest lap.

Yet again McLaren appeared not to appreciate that every point for Norris is crucial as he now finds himself 52 behind the current world champion with six race weekends of the season remaining. Red Bull however were on the money when it comes to each minute detail as the sister team called in their driver Daniel Ricciardo (who was out of the points), fitted fresh tyres and sent him out to claim the fastest lap.

FIA fail to uphold their own rules whilst fiddling as Rome burns

 

 

 

Norris says Ricciardo ‘did nothing wroing’

Of course being outside the top ten, Daniel did not receive the extra point for fastest lap, but he did deny Norris a point in his battle with Verstappen for the drivers’ championship.

A number of paddock voices suggested it was just wrong that the Red Bull backed teams could work together to deny McLaren and Norris a well deserved Grand Chelm. Yet Lando when this was suggested to him appeared phlegmatic and dismissed the incident as ‘just on of those things.’

“Well done, Daniel. Nothing I can do, so good on him,” said Norris when it was suggested Red Bull had engaged in a form of cheating.

“Yeah, I did my best to try and get quickest lap when the tires are in a good condition in the middle. But I can’t have them all. You know, I’ve done my best like trying to get quickest laps over the last few weekends, and I’ve been able to get them more often than not.”

Hamilton calls “racism” but his thinking is warped

 

 

 

Minor teams affecting F1 results a historic tactic

The McLaren driver explained his second set of tyres were significantly worn by the end of the race and were no match for “a guy on a new soft so, yeah. That’s just life.”

Of course no other organisation in F1 has two teams to effect this kind of strategic planning. Yet the history of the sport is lowered with team’s having an alliance working together to maximise results. Ferrari and Sauber’s relationship goes back a long way and it has not been uncomment for a Sauber driver to hold up a competitor of Ferrari in an attempt to benefit the Scuderia.

Mercedes relationship with Williams as a supplier of power units has seen the squad from Grove accommodate one of the drivers’ of their engine supplier whilst at the same time making it difficult for one of the Silver Arrows competition.

Norris batted away questions suggesting V-CARB and Red Bull’s collaboration was unfair. “That’s how it’s been in Formula 1 for, I don’t know, probably since before I was born,” he said. “So, nothing to complain about.

F1 row over swearing now extends to TV presenter

 

 

 

V-CARB hoss says it was ‘faewell’ gesture for Ricciardo 

“Like, there’s been races in the past when other people have been racing, [and] we try to take it away from others. So yes, the logical thing to do, the smart play by them. Happy for Daniel.”

V-CARB’s team boss Laurent Mekies attempted to spin the strategic part his team played in preventing Norris get the extra point, claiming it was there team’s gift to Daniel Ricciardo as this was likely his last race in F1.

“Given this may have been Daniel’s last race, we wanted to give him the chance to savour it and go out with the fastest lap,” Mekies said after the event.

Singapore reveals Red Bull employees and Newey relationship “stone cold”

 

 

 

Red Bull on “signing George Russell”

Christian Horner’s ambitious strategy could shake up 2026 line-up as Red Bull eyes George Russell: A new rivalry in the F1 driver market? In Formula One, driver moves and contract negotiations often make as much noise as the races themselves. Recently, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner made headlines for openly courting Mercedes’ rising star George Russell, signalling further power play in the paddock and a potential shift in the sport’s competitive landscape if true.

This development comes amid Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff’s long-standing interest in securing Red Bull’s top talent, Max Verstappen. The two rival teams now find themselves at the centre of a new battle – this time off the track, in the race for the best drivers… READ MORE