Well, it might not be the championship battle we originally hoped for or predicted, but going into the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi next weekend, we will be deciding who finishes P2 in BOTH the Drivers' and Constructors' World Championships.

As it stands after Qatar, Lando Norris leads Charles Leclerc by only 8 points for P2 in the Drivers' Championship.

McLaren now lead Ferrari by 21 points for P2 in the Constructors' Championship. It is hard to believe Ferrari could be this close to P2. McLaren has had by far the faster car this season, but they have left so many points on the board throughout the year.

Perez got overtaken by Franco Colapinto at the start of the Sprint Race in the pit lane… How? If you watch the onboard footage, it literally looks like he saw the green light, turned his head, let Colapinto pass, and then decided to start his race. The safety car got away faster than Checo.

Speculation on Perez’s departure from Red Bull continue to grow and now it seems more likely than not that his future with the team has already been decided.

It is now being heavily reported that Checo is out at Red Bull next year, with Liam Lawson being the likely person to step in, and F2 driver Isack Hadjar stepping into the VCARB seat.

Christian Horner - "We're very much focused on really supporting him to the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi. It's not an enjoyable situation for Checo being in this position with speculation every week. He's old enough and wise enough to know what the situation is and let's see where we are after Abu Dhabi."

Yuki does have a scheduled test in the Red Bull after Abu Dhabi to try and impress the Red Bull leadership, but with years of data and experience to look back on, it is hard to believe that one weekend test will drastically change their minds and pull Yuki up.

Sergio Perez’s time with Red Bull is nearing a critical juncture. Despite contributing to the team’s success, including Constructors' titles in 2022 and 2023, Perez has struggled in 2024. He is officially going to finish eighth in the standings, and his inconsistent performance contrasts sharply with teammate Max Verstappen’s dominance.

Red Bull's shareholders will weigh retaining Perez against promoting a driver from their development program. A decision is expected next week, marking a pivotal moment in Perez’s F1 career.

The stewards are no strangers to making mistakes when it comes to handing out penalties or calling for yellow flags.

Two incidents that stood out the most to us this weekend were the one-place grid penalty Max Verstappen was given after impeding George Russell during a warm-up lap in qualifying, and the lack of a safety car for debris on track that directly caused two punctures.

Our first thought after hearing about the one-place grid penalty was, “Have they just made this up?”

George was on a warm-up lap, and the argument could be made that he sped up at the wrong time and ran himself too close to Verstappen, which caused him to slam on his brakes. Max, who was on a slow lap, let his real feelings be known about the penalty and how George handled the situation after the race, which we have recapped below in our Overheard in the Paddock section.

We had quite the lull in safety cars for the majority of the season, so maybe the FIA forgot how to use them? When Alex Albon’s mirror fell off his car directly on the racing line, we all were waiting for the safety car or VSC to be called so a marshal could clear the debris.

The double yellow flags were waved for a few laps before Bottas came along, ran over the debris, and sent it across the track. Then, both Hamilton and Sainz picked up punctures. Only after this did the decision get made to deploy the safety car.

The recurring issue we have is that the FIA seems unable to take any responsibility, both with stewarding decisions and the higher-up leadership, as we also saw with FIA President Ben Sulayem and his comments.

Can you imagine if something like this had happened one or two races ago and a driver like Max or Lando had been impacted by this delayed decision?

You can read the FIA’s official explanation here.

Zhou Guanyu finished in P8 and scored the first points of the season for Sauber! Rightly so, he was voted Driver of the Day. It was a great showing for Zhou, and who knows? Getting a couple of points might help him get back on the grid sometime in the future.

Zhou has scored more points than Perez in the last four races! Future Red Bull star? We doubt it, but making comparisons to Perez is just too easy.

The Weekend in a Nutshell:
Lewis Hamilton faced a series of setbacks at the Qatar Grand Prix, finishing 12th and missing out on points for the first time this season. He endured a false start penalty, a front-left puncture, and a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. Steering and grip issues further hampered his race.

Despite the challenges, the seven-time champion remains optimistic: “It’s not how you fall; it’s how you get back up. I’ll give it my best shot next week.”

With one final race with Mercedes I am sure it has been and will be a large range of emotions for him.

To be leaving the team that has had his side and helped him achieve most of his success. No matter how excited he is for the Ferrari move there have to be some emotions that are inevitable when making this type of change.

Lewis seems to be the type of guy who wants to give his all to the team that has helped him become one of the F1 greats, and not performing well over the past few weeks must be weighing on him some.

Max Verstappen was handed a 1-place grid penalty for Sundays main race for impeding George Russell during qualifying. Now our opinion here is the penalty was probably not deserving and it seems a little silly to give a 1-place penalty for impeding someone during their warmup lap.

No matter what you or I think of the penalty, Max Verstappen has some STRONG feelings about it.

“I've never seen someone trying to screw someone over that hard”.

“I was quite surprised when sitting there in the stewards’ room, what was all going on,”

“Honestly, very disappointing. Because I think we all respect each other a lot. And of course, I've been in that meeting room many times in my life and my career with people that I've raced and I've never seen someone trying to screw someone over that hard. And I lost all respect.” 😬

Oh we hope Max and George have similarly paced cars next year and we can get some more of this.

FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem has faced scrutiny over a series of leadership changes and criticisms from F1 drivers and the media. Key issues include:

1. High-Profile Departures: Recent exits of senior FIA figures, including F1 Race Director Niels Wittich, have raised questions about internal stability.

2. GPDA Open Letter: Drivers criticized a lack of transparency, specifically questioning where fines are allocated and calling for respectful engagement.

Ben Sulayem has made it clear that he does not care what others think of him, and he doesn’t think it is anyone’s business in how he runs the FIA and the lack of transparency he has been able to show while making the decisions he has.

Over this race weekend he had some pretty strong statements on the topic of his leadership, and the perception the drivers and media have of him.

In response to the Grand Prix Driver Association joint statement and the overall narrative he has created for himself and his leadership he had this to say:

“With all respect, I am a driver. I respect the drivers. Let them go and concentrate on what they do best, which is race.

“This is our business. “We'll do whatever is good for the FIA. So it's really none of people's business to interfere in ours. It's the results that we produce.”

In regards to the media coverage and response from the recent changes in the upper levels of FIA management he had this to say:

“Do we have to tell them? When something in the teams changes, do they tell us? No, they don't. Nobody has to. We have the rules, we follow our rules. We don't follow someone else's rule. Simple as this.”

“I mean, with the media, with all respect, why do I have to answer everything? “I have a responsibility towards my members and towards the sport.

“The media accused me of everything, this fabrication of me, and sexism. But where is it? Did anyone prove it right? They bring something from 23 years ago, and they said that I stole money, and I interfered in the result of the stewards. Where is all of that? Where?

There is a growing divide between the F1 drivers and teams, and the FIA leadership direction. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this turmoil and if there will be any more significant changes made, or will this fire continue to burn slowly until something significant happens?

Jack Doohan, Alpine’s reserve driver, is replacing Esteban Ocon in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

This will mark Doohan’s Formula 1 race debut. This opportunity also paves the way for his confirmed full-time race seat alongside Pierre Gasly in 2025.

Doohan becomes the first graduate of the Alpine Academy to secure a race seat with the team, fulfilling a long-term development goal.

Alpine is marketing this has a “win-win” for both Ocon and Alpine as they will each be able to work on next year sooner… If Ocon didn’t want this switch and was not given the chance we have to say it doesn’t seem all that fair to make this public display from the Alpine garage. He has performed well for Alpine as of late, most recently with his P2 finish in Brazil. Alpine has been at the bottom of the timing sheets all year and once the car performance began to climb he did his best to make the most of it.

What about Ocon? Well, this will allow him to get to work with Haas, whom he will be racing for next year.

Well the final race of the season is finally upon us… While we will be sad for the season to end have to be happy that drivers and teams still have lots to compete for in Abu Dhabi!

Check us out on Thursday to get ready for the final race of the year.