On the western coast of Greenland, as many as 10,000 icebergs float south from Baffin Bay, through the Davis Strait, along the desolate coast of Labrador, towards the warmer waters of Newfoundland. It is here that these giant ice cubes meet the warmer waters of the North Atlantic shipping lanes and become a danger to titanic ships.

Sisimiut is a quiet part of the world where there is little for mankind to do except to catch fish and put them into freezer bags or cans. The town can produce around 50,000 tons of shrimp a year, if the sea can provide them. The city only has about 5,600 inhabitants but this makes it the second largest city in Greenland. It is primarily known these days for the world’s toughest cross-country ski competition, known as the Arctic Circle Race, which covers 100 miles over mountainous terrain over three days, with the competitors camping out overnight.

The reason I write all this is that I am in a plane, high above this place, six hours out of Los Angeles, with nine and a half more before we touch down in Doha. I could be eating scones with clotted cream, or so the menu says, but that seems a little decadent for the neighbourhood. The plane is quiet, with most people asleep, but my time zones are muddled by jet-lag and odd working hours – and so I am typing.

After a few days in Las Vegas I always feel the need to be somewhere less tainted by humanity and Sisimuit sounds pleasant enough. Pictures show a scenic spot with colourful houses on a tranquil fjord, surrounded by the Nasaasaaq mountains, which sounds like a stock exchange.

Leaving Las Vegas and heading through the Mojave Desert should have been a rather cleansing experience. These are desolate lands, but while the back roads may be empty and wonderful, the main highway is never quiet as people flow in and out of Las Vegas, leaving only their money behind. The city is a metaphor for American excess and hype. It is a place where it is difficult to distinguish between real and imagined worlds. Fact and fantasy are so intertwined that one can lose sight of what is important. It is a place that preys on human weakness and pretends to offer the chance to be rich and satisfied in pretty much any way you would like – if you have the money to pay for it.

The other day I was amused to be in a steakhouse, being served by an Angel and a Gabriel, who did not see the humour when I mentioned that I must be in heaven. Still, they charged $250 for a couple of steaks and a glass of wine, which proves that they are no angels – and that some Americans will pay silly money in order to be seen to be rich and successful. It is an odd concept but one that clever folk are happy to exploit. There is no reason why people should not play hard when they are not working. People go to Las Vegas to gamble, to drink and to misbehave. It is a city that is reliant on bad behaviour, with “a nightlife industry” that challenges the sanctimonious ways of Middle America and caters for the darker side of humanity and for the hypocrites. The city once had a slogan: “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”, which summed it up well.

I do not believe in preaching to the world in self-righteous and holier-than-thou terms. We all have our different ideas of morality and it is best to live and let live. Tolerance helps society understand and accept different cultures. Fundamentalists fight to impose their beliefs on others and do not seem to understand that this does not make them right, it simply makes them intolerant.

The thing is that sin and moral turpitude are more lucrative than most other businesses and so  gradually Las Vegas has lost its monopoly of hedonism and many other states now use casinos for economic development. Hence Formula 1 has turned up in Sin City to help to shore up the balance sheets. The sport is not particularly wicked, it is just providing entertainment to give

people the chance to escape from the serious issues that exist in our troubled world. It is not the job of Formula 1 to be virtuous, although the current FIA President seems to think that we should be some kind of missionary society, telling the world how to behave.

Who are we to pass judgement on how people behave, or what words they use. We are just a travelling circus, a world of freaks and bearded ladies, of clowns and chainsaw jugglers, of sword-swallowers and aerial acrobats. F1’s job is to thrill and give pleasure – and make money. And the sport is doing it all rather well, both on and off the track. I reckon F1 has never been in a better place with as much optimism and promise for the future. And, to be brutally honest, if the worst we have to worry about is a bizarre FIA President and his flunkies, things are not really that bad.

Having said that, I hear that there is now a proposal for the President and Deputy-Presidents to be paid salaries. While I think it is a good idea in principle, because the role will never attract the best candidates if one can only get the role if one can afford not to be paid. The problem is that getting a salary is actually against the law. The FIA is governed by the so-called Association Loi of 1901 which exists for non-profit entities in France, allowing them certain freedoms with regard to taxation and administrative processes, on the basis that the leadership is not paid and claims only bona fide expenses. If the rules are broken there is the possibility of substantial tax demands from the French government.

This is a problem that Max Mosley ran into years ago when he tried to move the FIA to Switzerland and subsequently received a tax demand from the French government that caused his eyes to water and his plans to be changed. Today the FIA remains under French law because it does not want to settle a tax bill and leave. However, there is a Swiss version of the federation as well. The two FIAs have consolidated accounts, but they are run under different sets of laws. This is a little odd but has worked fine until the President tried to claim expenses for his own private jet from the French FIA. He does not need the money (he comes from a mega-wealthy family) but he wanted to use the money to establish a fund that would be distributed to small FIA clubs around the world which struggle to pay their bills. The little clubs are, naturally, very keen on this idea, but it was pointed out that this scheme might be misinterpreted when there was an election in the offing, as some might suggest that this was a way to buy votes. I am told that the audit committee questioned the idea and since then several of them, including the president Bertrand Badre and Britain’s Tom Purves, are no longer involved. This may also be why there have been changes on the ethics committee as well, and the reason that the compliance officer has just departed. We don’t know for sure because people are not talking but there is likely to be plenty of chatter in the next 12 months. The thing is that so many FIA people have left during Ben Sulayem’s presidency that they could all get together and organise conferences to discuss their stories. The latest to go, I am told, are two stewards: Tim Mayer of the US and Singapore’s Janette Tan. They follow the recently despatched F1 Race Director Niels Wittich and a lot of others, some of which have been reported upon and others who have not.

Despite all this, the FIA remains a sideshow, while much of the action in Las Vegas was centred around Liberty Media. The departure of Greg Maffei as CEO of Liberty is interesting but not a huge surprise given the salary he has been earning and the fact that Liberty is becoming a much smaller company with the spinoff of almost everything apart from F1 and MotoGP, which will be an F1 subsidiary. John Malone, the man who controls Liberty, has never been very interested in F1. He likes the numbers, but he has left it to Maffei to run. I think he’s been one Grand Prix in the seven years Liberty Media has owned it. He says he sees a lot of potential, but that may only be because he is keen to talk up the value of the business.

Clearly there has been a lot going on with regard to the 11th team announcement and much confusion about who owns what. The decision to allow the team to enter F1 is based on the premise that it will be a factory General Motors team, although it is clear that this is a partnership between General Motors and TWG Global, “an investment vehicle for Mark Walter, the co-founder and CEO of Guggenheim Capital”.

TWG owns and controls companies involved in various market sectors including finance, renewables, sports, media and entertainment. Walter is the part-owner of the Major League Baseball LA Dodgers team, a co-owner of Premier League club Chelsea FC and the owner of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL). He has partnered with a variety of investors in his different sporting ventures notably a former Guggenheim executive Todd Boehly and Texas oil and gas investor Bobby Patton Jr in the LA Dodgers. They were later joined by tennis legend Billy Jean King, and she and Walter now together control the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL). Walter and Boehly joined forces with Clearlake Capital Group and Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss to buy Chelsea FC.

It is worth noting that Gainbridge’s Dan Towriss and Walter joined forces with Patton in a British-registered company called Motorsports Investment International Ltd  in 2021 but they closed this down in July 2022, presumably because that entity was going to be used to acquire Sauber.

The announcements have given some clarity about who owns what and who is really the force behind all the pushing and shoving over the team formerly known as Andretti. Guggenheim is not funding the F1 project, but Walter controls the Gainbridge insurance firm, Andretti Global, Wayne Taylor Racing in IMSA and Spire Motorsports in NASCAR.

The key question now is what the ownership vehicle of the F1 team will be and who will own what. One presumes that a GM team would be owned by GM, but this is not by any mean certain. Similarly, GM has announced that it will enter F1 as an engine supplier, but it did not say that this will not be before 2028. In the interim it will likely use Ferrari engines and gearboxes.

This weekend in Qatar should provide some more clarity about some of the goings-on in recent days and for now I will leave it at that, although I am sure there is much more to be told. Las Vegas was a very busy weekend as a result of all of the above but there were some other interesting goings on.

Valtteri Bottas is expected to be named as the Mercedes F1 reserve driver, although the Finn is still keen to organise some actual racing in 2025.  Valtteri did have an offer to race in IndyCar, but is not yet ready to give up on F1. The IndyCar offer was most likely from the Juncos Hollinger team, which has a seat open alongside the well-heeled Sting Ray Robb, who brings a hefty sum in sponsorship from a religious social networking service. Perhaps as America becomes more important in F1 we can look forward to new titles such as the Official Prayer Partner to Formula 1 or F1’s Official Gun Supplier.

Anyway, Bottas knows co-owner Brad Hollinger well as Hollinger was a Williams F1 partner when Valtteri was driving for the team back in the day. The IndyCar is believed to also be in conversation with Conor Daly, son of former F1 driver Derek, who did a terrific job for them in the final races this year.

Back in F1, there is no truth in the rumours that Bottas would be some sort of advisor for the Mercedes team – and Ferrari is not even talking to Guanyu Zhou about a reserve driver role, although to be fair there are times when one tentacle of the red team may not know what the other tentacles are doing. Ferrari’s 2025 reserve driver will be Oliver Bearman.

Red Bull continues to say that it will decide on its driver line-up after the end of the season. Stories suggesting that Carlos Sainz might go to Red Bull and open a space for Franco Colapinto at Williams are not true. What is true is that despite the loving support of millions of Mexican fans, Sergio Perez is still not able to deliver any meaningful results. Red Bull is being vaguely diplomatic (which is an achievement for Dr Helmut Marko) but no-one except Perez and his eccentric father are saying he will be at Red Bull next year. All the signs point to a decision at the end of this season between Liam Lawson and Franco Colapinto.  The Argentine driver has been the hot favourite to join World Champion Max Verstappen, but a series of heavy crashes have raised questions about whether Franco is ready. Perez’s major supporter Carlos Slim has been spotted chatting to Colapinto and his management, while Red Bull’s CEO Oliver Mintzlaff was spotted visiting Williams F1 in the course of the Las Vegas weekend. He was only there for a day, so this was not a social call. The Latin American market for energy drinks is currently worth $3 billion and is expected to grow by eight percent annually from now until 2031.

Elsewhere in the F1 world, Rob White, formerly the Operations Director at Alpine, has just started work as Chief Operating Officer of the Andretti/Cadillac team, along with many other refugees from the purges at Enstone. They are all going to be rather busy now, as they need to have a 2026 car up and running in about 14 months. It will be interesting to see how competitive they will be when wheels start turning.

In the meantime the arrival of more American interest in the sport will probably make the negotiations for the next US TV rights deal quite interesting, with current holders ESPN (which is part of the Disney empire) having a period of exclusivity to negotiate. There are believed to be others waiting with chequebooks poised.

It is worth noting, in passing, that the European Commission’s executive vice president Margrethe Vestager, who also serves as the competition and internal market commissioner, said last week that the Commission is currently not considering any investigations into claims that there are anti-trust issues in motorsport.

A decision about whether F1’s acquisition of MotoGP needs any regulatory intervention will be made in the next few weeks.

F1 was gone in a flash from Las Vegas and is installing itself in Doha for the next episode of the racing soap opera. We will see what unlikely events occur this weekend…

In conclusion, I have to say that my reflective moment over Sisimiut was rather spoiled when I read that even up there in the wilderness humankind is still making a mess of things. It is a little-known fact that further north, near the Thule Air Base, a B-52G Stratofortress carrying four nuclear bombs crashed on to the ice sheet in 1968, after a fire on board. Fortunately the nuclear bombs did not detonate but there was a lot of radioactive material spread around in the impact. The bomber burned its way through the ice sheet and sank to the ocean floor. The whole thing was classified and some of the story remains secret.

Sounds a bit like F1 at the moment…