Dre’s Race Review: F1’s 2024 Singapore Grand Prix

“Without using swear words, how would you describe that moment?” – Oscar Piastri

Welcome back to Formula 1’s final round before the newly and accidentally formed, Autumn break, as the travelling circus headed to Singapore, for some hearty swearing. And apparently, a Grand Prix may have broken out on Sunday, but it’s hard to tell given how much of a snoozer it turned out being. Let’s get into- Oh for fuck sake, someone swapped the segments around on my script!

Mind Your Language

I hate that this is even a subject on this blog, but this is Formula 1 for you – Where even the smallest of points gets blown up into weekend-wide issues. A peek behind the curtain of my day job as Autosport’s Production Coordinator. We now do a 10-minute paddock video every day of a race weekend from Thursday to Sunday. Swearing has been the headline topic for three days running. 

It all started on Thursday when FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem asked for the sport’s drivers to stop swearing. Not an unreasonable thing to ask, there’s no harm in making a product more family-friendly. Now I suspect this was another thinly veiled jab at Formula One Management, of which he’s had many since becoming President; because ultimately they decide what radio messages make the broadcast (Censored, let’s not forget), and if you want every radio message broadcast, you have to go out of your way to get it. But it was the way he worded the sentiment that rightly raised eyebrows. 

“We’re not rappers, you know. They say the f-word how many times per minute? We are not on that. That’s them and we are [us].”

You got your usual pushback from a range of drivers who all know they’re going to curse in the heat of the moment driving a 1,000 horsepower F1 car, but once again, it was the media-appointed moral compass of the sport – Lewis Hamilton to point out the racial stereotyping. Most of the world’s rappers are black, and it’s ingrained in black culture, we all know that deep down. To say that drivers swearing and comparing it to rap is a bad thing – Makes it seem like a part of our culture is bad. 

Now, I generally put this one in the book of old-school ignorance. Ben Sulayem is 62 and from a culture that’s very different from the Western World where the majority of you will be reading this from. But it wouldn’t be the first time Ben Sulayem has been caught making bigoted statements about people, and I many will be even harsher than I am based on his clumsy at best track record. It’s another disappointing public act from a man who sadly doesn’t realise how bad he is at conveying his message as the president of a sporting council. 

But sadly, this has exploded into the talk of the weekend and a general debate about swearing in sports and how Max Verstappen has now become the mascot for the maverick. So let’s entertain it for a minute. 

Max Verstappen swore multiple times in the driver’s press conference on Thursday. I thought he’d get a warning from the stewards like Toto Wolff and Fred Vasseur did last season. Turns out he got a day of community service for his trouble. Now, I think the governing body was probably better off letting this go. Drawing more attention to what is a bit of a nothing burger that Max had already apologised for was always going to be a red rag to the bull of an audience that will draw up petty comparisons, like with Lewis Hamilton’s jewellery of yesteryear. Was there valid reasoning for not allowing it and enforcing it? Absolutely. But do we think we as an audience were going to entertain that? Hell no, especially less than a year after Abu Dhabi 2021 went down. 

The reality is, that while yes, driver’s press conferences aren’t meant for the children and are meant for the media – Let’s not pretend like we as consumers are not at least slightly responsible for making the sport as accessible as it has become. When Sky drops literal billions of pounds to put as much of the coverage on TV as possible, it becomes a family-orientated product. The driver’s and team bosses’ pressers never used to be televised and broadcast, now they are. 

No one gave a shit about pre-season testing until we pestered Sky into believing there’s an audience for it, now it’s all shown in full. Hell, FOM and Sky as World Feed producers both agreed on having a specialised kids-friendly broadcast that was more family-orientated. 

Because sports are now such a deeply parasocial experience (How many accounts do you follow that have its footprint attached to the sport, the driver, or both?), we pushed to make it access all areas. This isn’t Drive to Survive where a production company can take the bleeps out, this is a live sport, and they have broadcasting rules to adhere to. 

Just because you don’t think a child is watching, doesn’t mean that they aren’t, or couldn’t if they wanted to, especially in this F1 social climate where the drivers are getting followed closer than ever and every part of a race weekend, from the fashion, to the paddock, to the pressers and beyond is all out there for the world to see. 

And we as an audience have to understand that if you want your dedicated F1 channel, it comes with drawbacks. And that counts for every global sport out there, not just ours. I remember seeing genuine, good faith discussions about AEW Wrestling after the Hangman Page/Swerve Strickland match had the use of a syringe in it and wondered if their product was deemed “too much” for young children. Of course, a subsection of fans are always going to scream “Utter Woke Nonsense” but I think there was a valid discussion to be had there. And if that’s the case, you’re potentially alienating parents and children from watching you. And NO media firm wants that. 

This probably goes away with an FIA wrist slap. But because community service was agreed upon, we as fans jumped on it like a red rag to a bull, with jokes about swearing going super viral. Max of course took it one further on Saturday by giving one-word answers in the FIA press conference after qualifying second and instead, spoke to the media outside on the way to the garage in an incredible scene. Of course, people love a throwback to anti-FIA sass, I remember the pettiness of Hamilton’s blinged-up Miami presser, or Sebastian Vettel’s “Captain Underpants” impression, but at a point, the 32-year old now media “professional” in me goes: “Isn’t this all a bit much?”

Because when you factor Max’s actions, alongside the GPDA kicking up a stink about it, and the FIA not reading the room, it all just feels massively overblown and a massive waste of time, ending with an attempted desperation power play from Max to create attention for a situation he’s never going to win. TV networks and the FIA will keep censoring people, F1 will go on holiday for a month and this will all blow over like so many trivial political beefs do in this sport. 

And the worst part of all this? The most serious part of this flashpoint – Ben Sulayem’s bigoted remarks have been glossed over because the whole sport’s stakeholders had to go to the circus on this one. And that frustrates me because the room for good faith discussion gets closed out and only lives on blogs like this one. And that frustrates me.

All that over an F-Bomb. Man, what a fucking mess. 

Singapore Sleep

Not much to really say on this one. You could frame the whole review around one simple fact – This was the first Singapore GP in its 15-year history without a Safety Car. That should tell you all you need to know.

Lando Norris dominated the weekend from start to finish. Reasonably comfortable on pole, with Verstappen scoring a solid second place despite Red Bull’s car woes, and they stayed that way for the entire race as Lando ended up winning by 20 seconds, with the gap as much as 29. 

There was some heart-racing moments, Lando tapping the wall twice and going wide a third time – Race engineer Will Joseph probably had kittens across the 105 minute runtime. But it never looked like he was going to lose. When Norris was asked to push the gap out to 5 seconds in about 8 laps to ward off an undercut threat, Norris took it out to 10. He was almost in complete control of this one and it showed.

Mind you, Max would probably bite your arm off for second place given Red Bull’s recent setup woes. If nothing else – they can take some solace from the fact that their latest floor does seem to have made a difference. Red Bull also has an upgrade package due in Austin, with it now knowing they likely took the car back in the wrong direction in terms of development as far back as Spain 2023, when Sergio Perez’s form dropped off a cliff – Something the team had to apologise to Checo for. Oof.

Spare a thought for Ferrari as well, who once again, had a quick car, but completely ruined their Q3. Sainz put his car in the wall after turning too vigorously on sub-optimal tyres, and for sending Charles Leclerc out for his final flyer on a set 10 degrees outside its operating window. Ferrari is genuinely in this title race, and making a dog’s dinner at weekends like this one is not ideal. Again.

Still, Lando’s dominant day in the sun… kind of. To the Lightning Round!

The Lightning Round

What denied Lando a Grand Slam was Daniel Ricciardo coming into the pits on Lap 59 for a final fling on a new set of Soft Tyres. It felt… like a goodbye. Daniel was holding back tears as he spoke to Lawrence Baretto after the race. It was the body language of a man who knows the end is nigh. 

The rumours have been strong that this could be Daniel Ricciardo’s final F1 race, with RB set to drop him for Liam Lawson immediately. I wouldn’t say I like it, but it does make sense. If you think Lawson’s your guy, which there is a credible argument to think he deserves a full-time seat, then you might as well get him now and get some extra running for free before 2025 starts. I said the same about Haas, Ollie Bearman and Kevin Magnussen. 

If this is the end, a salute to Daniel. He’s a socially clumsy man, but he’s also been one of this sport’s great drivers and entertainers in recent years, and he dared to be different when he could have had a comfy life as Verstappen’s backup. That demands some respect. First ballot in the “Hall of Very Good” drivers. Even if it’s kinda funny his potentially last act as an F1 driver was aiding Max Verstappen’s title campaign. *shot*

There’s also some more significance there as that fastest lap point going away from Norris means the World Championship is now out of Lando’s hands. He can perfect the rest of the way and if Max follows him home in second, Max wins the title by 1 point. A lot of people are going to be salty about this because Red Bull has two teams, to which I say – The Fastest Lap rule is a dumb one by design and nothing is stopping McLaren from owning a second team if they wanted to. It’s always been unserious, the most recent alliteration doesn’t even give out the point unless it’s to a driver in the Top 10, which defeats the entire nature of the award. It’s a silly rule that’s led to pointless pitstops and I hope this leads it to being scrapped for 2025. 

After a two-race hiatus, I can go back to saying that Sergio Perez is cheeks. Welcome back.

Yeah, Franco Colapinto is an F1-level driver already. Singapore is about as tough as you get for a rookie, especially one dropped in mid-season, but to finish 11th on your first attempt and sniff the points is an impressive feat. It might have come too late to get him on the 2025 grid unless he likes playing the “Liam Lawson” role…

Nico Hulkenberg – That boy nice. 

Dre’s Race Review: 3/10 (Poor) – About as low a score as I give for a race that doesn’t outright annoy me in some way. This race was DOA – Dead on Arrival. Even if Max had forced another Lando Turn 1 error (Finally he led a Lap 2 on his eighth attempt), Lando had the pace to counter like in Zandvoort. And everyone else drove safely. Some passes here and there but nothing special. Alas. See you in a month’s time in Austin.