WTF, FIA

The FIA like the wing mirror sitting on the straight in Qatar after Valtteri Bottas ran it over is completely broken.

Maybe it was always this way or the process began much earlier, but we started to see how deeply the FIA was flawed when they broke their own rules and handed the 2021 world championship to Max Verstappen in Abu Dhabi.

Ever since then the FIA and it’s leader Mohammed Ben Sulayem has continued to make a series of blunders, including continuing to race and take big dollars in the Middle East even as bombs were dropping a few miles from the track.

This all reared its head in Qatar as the FIA inexplicably left a broken wing mirror on the track for four laps until VB obliterated it with his Stake Sauber, thus leading to tire punctures for Lewis Hamilton and Carlos Sainz.

Why the FIA risked lives and cars is inexplicable. It’s hard however not to believe that it’s because a safety car would have given Lando Norris a chance to catch Max Verstappen, who was in the lead, on the safety car restart.

This might be absurd, but look at any post race and MBS is usually out there hugging Max and fist bumping Verstappen like he’s MBS’ favorite nephew.

Adding in to the conspiracy theory is that instead of encouraging a thrilling finish the FIA slapped Lando Norris with an absurd 10 second penalty for not lifting under yellow flag for those mirrors. You might say well he didn’t lift, but a bunch of cars didn’t lift and he’s the only one that got dinged.

Speaking of absurdity, it’s clear that Lewis Hamilton probably had one of the worst weekends of his racing life in Qatar. The double penalties, the missed qualifying opportunities, the puncture and more had him begging to retire the car for the second time this season.

It’s hard not to blame him given that it’s so clear to him that Mercedes has shifted all preference to George Russell the last half of this season. It’s also probably why this weekend Lewis basically said he didn’t have it anymore and he was slow while winking at a reporter.

Lewis is of course not slow, just frustrated. Ferrari has to love this though, because that means the seven time champion will be chomping at the bit to win when he joins Ferrari in the offseason.

Speaking of tough off seasons, with Franco Colapinto getting absolutely bowling balled by Nico Hulkenberg and Ocon in the opening lap, that’s 14 very expensive crashes and a massive budget hit for Williams this year.

Speaking of massive budget hits, Lance Stroll continues to spend his daddy’s money while doing stupid things like almost killing Alex Albon with dangerous side swipes like he did in Qatar.

Stroll’s partner Fernando Alonso somehow secured a seventh place which was amazing given that earlier in the race he was grousing about how the Aston is basically the same shit box on the straights he had two years ago.

Nothing was more surprising though than Zhou Guanyu getting his first points of the season and securing driver of the day, a nice result given he’s one race away from leaving the show. Sadly, his stablemate Valtteri Bottas had to settle for eleventh due to Lando Norris’ penalty demotion and the pride of the Porridge Posse only has one race left to get a point before he becomes a world class cyclist.

Also surprising, Pierre Gasly had another top 5 finish proving that he should probably still be in the second Red Bull seat instead of Checo.

Since Gasly won’t have a shot I’d still love to see Yuki Tsunoda get that Red Bull seat next year as he once again drove the heck out of his car today, even though it was slower than a Toyota Tercel.

The only question left now is who will be slower next week in Abu Dhabi? Will it be McLaren or will it be Ferrari. Whoever finishes fastest will be constructors’ champion and I can not wait to see that thrilling finish.