After the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix, Formula 1 record winner Lewis Hamilton sharply criticized the racing event at the Lusail International Circuit near Doha and described it as “probably the worst race”. It must have been “pretty bad” for the spectators, said Hamilton.
The Ferrari driver explained: “The track is fast and fantastic to drive, but unfortunately it’s like Monaco: you can’t overtake.” This was made even more difficult by the Pirelli tire requirement of a maximum of 25 laps per set of tires. This meant that the teams had “no flexibility” in their strategy in the race: “Everyone stopped at the same time.”
For Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur, this was the “worst case” – an early safety car phase at the beginning of the window, which would allow the race to continue according to the “timetable”. “It meant that everyone stopped under yellow and then drove 25 laps on their tires twice. And in this case, I don’t think anyone overtook a car.”
Toto Wolff: Formula 1 has to do exactly the opposite
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff also regrets the lack of strategic diversity in the Grand Prix. He said: “A mandatory two-stop strategy never works. I had that in the DTM, where we tried all variants: mandatory stops, mandatory stops in a certain window, playing around with the tires.”
Wolff therefore suggests exactly the opposite: free competition. “You have to let the strategies develop. You have to let people drive a one-stop strategy and then watch them fight with tires deteriorating, while others go to two stops and work their way back forward with pure pace. That’s what it takes,” said Wolff.
According to Hamilton, a longer DRS zone on the home straight would have been needed in Qatar. He himself addressed the topic in the drivers’ meeting on Friday. “I asked the question: ‘You saw last year that there was no overtaking. Why didn’t you extend the DRS zone?’ Then they just said: ‘We didn’t think about that.’ And I said, ‘What are you doing?'”
Do changes need to be made to the race track?
Wolff agrees with Hamilton on this point and says: “Extending the DRS zone would be the easiest way to create an overtaking opportunity.” However, the Mercedes team boss would go one step further and “make Turn 1 tighter – in combination with the DRS zone”. Wolff thinks: “You should look at the layout.”
Hamilton would also use this opportunity to shorten the pit lane. “It takes 26 seconds to drive through it, but at the end of the pit lane there is an area that seems unnecessarily long. The pit lane could end earlier because it starts extremely early,” explained Hamilton. This would reduce transit time and make pit stops more attractive.
Or are the Formula 1 cars just to blame for everything? Vasseur points to the low tire wear in Qatar and the high amount of “dirty air” when driving behind: “We saw it on the last lap when Russell had a clear ride. He was a second faster. That shows: It’s the swirling air caused by the car in front that limits us more than anything else.”