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FIA reveals no F1 2024 cost cap breaches
The FIA has completed its review of the 2024 financial regulations, and the results are about as dramatic as you’d expect: nine teams compliant, one minor procedural hiccup. Aston Martin has been found in “Procedural Breach” - though the FIA is quick to reassure us it’s of “very minor nature,” caused by “unpredictable circumstances outside the control of the F1 Team.”
Which raises the obvious question: what actually happened? The FIA isn’t saying. After much review, and then some stalling, we get a vague statement and an Accepted Breach Agreement signed on September 29th. No details. No specifics. Just trust us, it was all very minor and very understandable.
This is precisely the problem with the cost cap enforcement process. Months to review the accounts, resulting in findings so inconsequential they can’t even be properly explained to the public. Meanwhile, the FIA pats itself on the back for conducting a “thorough and intensive” review and notes that everyone cooperated “in good faith.”
One wonders whether the system is designed to catch meaningful violations or simply to create the appearance of oversight. If a breach is so minor it requires three paragraphs of mitigation in the announcement, perhaps it’s time to ask, “what we’re actually policing here?”
Qatar Airways reveals F1 livery with Grammy-winner Swizz Beatz
There’s something ambitious—perhaps even a bit audacious—about Qatar Airways partnering with Grammy-winning producer Swizz Beatz to launch “Creative 100,” an annual celebration of 100 influential figures shaping global culture across art, design, music, fashion, sports, and technology. Announced last week at Art Basel Paris, the initiative operates in that increasingly blurred space where corporate patronage meets genuine cultural curation.
Swizz Beatz brings The Dean Collection to the table—the art collective he founded with Alicia Keys in 2014, known for its “No Commission Art Fair” that returns 100% of sales revenue to artists. It’s the kind of credential that lends legitimacy to what might otherwise feel like glossy corporate branding. The first cohort includes South African DJ Black Coffee, Olympic fencer Miles Chamley-Watson, Ferrari’s Chief Design Officer Flavio Manzoni, and sculptor Kennedy Yanko.
What strikes me is the long game here.
Qatar Airways envisions this as “the first platform of its sort” that becomes “a global cultural phenomenon in its own right,” with events planned for Miami, Hong Kong, Basel, and a flagship gala at Art Basel Doha in February 2026. They’re even painting special liveries on aircraft celebrating F1 and the FIFA World Cup 2026. Essentially turning the planes themselves into flying billboards for cultural capital.
There’s a larger conversation to be had about Gulf states positioning themselves as global cultural hubs, about the complicated dance between commerce and creativity. But for now, at least someone’s putting serious resources behind recognizing creators beyond the usual suspects. Whether “Creative 100” becomes the Davos of the art world or just another branded initiative remains to be seen. Either way, it’s worth watching what happens when an airline decides to invest in culture.