Max Verstappen and McLaren are giving Formula 1 fans a World Cup showdown that hasn’t been seen for a long time. Verstappen because the Dutchman confidently wins the Qatar GP. And McLaren, because the team is totally wrong strategically.
In hers sport.de-Debrief on the Formula 1 race in Qatar, F1 expert Christian Danner and RTL data analyst Steffen Kosuch analyze the GP and McLaren’s desert Waterloo.
Until Sunday there was no sign that Max Verstappen would win the race in Qatar. Okay, from third position he overtook second-placed Lando Norris at the start and fell behind his McLaren rival Oscar Piastri.
But: Nevertheless, there was still little to nothing in favor of the Red Bull star. Piastri had the entire weekend under control and confidently defended his pole position. Everything looked like a success for the recently struggling Australian. The actually exciting question was: Will Norris make it past Verstappen and complete the McLaren one-two?
Video: “Verstappen is completely programmed to win”
McLaren’s strategy brains with a fatal assumption
The tide turned on lap seven when Nico Hülkenberg’s accident with Pierre Gasly triggered a safety car phase.
Since Pirelli only allowed a maximum of 25 laps on their tires for the race distance of 57 laps for safety reasons, i.e. stipulated a two-stop strategy, this was the earliest possible time to make the first stop.
All teams followed this logic – except McLaren, which left its drivers outside.
After the GP, McLaren defended its strategy and justified the mistake by assuming that the risk of being stuck behind midfield cars in traffic would have been too great unless they turned into the pits. A daring thesis that quickly turned out to be fatally wrong for McLaren.
Gap (seconds) over race laps of the individual cars to race winner Verstappen
After the restart on lap ten, Piastri and Norris were still in the lead, but the entire field now had to make an additional pit stop. In the first laps the plan even seemed to work – but the performance of the McLaren cars quickly fizzled out.
By the time Piastri and Norris were behind Carlos Sainz in the Williams and Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli after their respective tire service, it became clear that McLaren would no longer be able to get close to Verstappen – let alone get past him.
For Piastri it was still enough for second place, while Norris had to be grateful that he had overtaken Antonelli in the end. Fourth place behind the strong Sainz was the bitter maximum for the Brit.
At McLaren the nerves are now on edge
Verstappen, of course, gratefully accepted the gift and confidently took victory. The World Cup will therefore remain exciting until the final in Abu Dhabi. Verstappen and Red Bull can only win – McLaren’s nerves are on edge by now.
Positive mentions: Antonelli, who once again crossed the finish line ahead of George Russell (even if he threw away P4 in the end) and Fernando Alonso, who confirmed the strong Aston Martin performance this weekend with seventh place.
Behind the old master, Charles Leclerc disappointed in eighth place in the Ferrari. Garage neighbor Lewis Hamilton was completely out of sorts the entire weekend and ended up in the bottom of the midfield.
Unlike Mercedes, the Reds are unlikely to be a “disruptive factor” in the last race of the World Cup three-way battle.