After the Saturday sprint in Qatar, you wouldn’t have found many with the expectation that Sunday’s main grand prix would be anything other than a procession. Though the Lusail circuit is a mega track, ultra-fast, and highlights all that makes an F1 car special, it isn’t made for overtaking. The Sprint race proved this with not a single pace-inspired overtake in the race. It didn’t bode well for the main event. Add to this that Pirelli had mandated a maximum number of 25 laps per tyre set, and it felt as if even the ambiguity in pitstop strategy was erased.
Oscar Piastri seemed to regain some of his lost form, as underlined by a Sprint pole and a win, as well as pole position for Sunday’s race. Still, two mandatory stops for each driver seemingly left little room for strategic ingenuity. But McLaren had the fans covered all along. They were not going to let the Qatar Grand Prix fizzle into little more than a DRS train. As Pierre Gasly and Nico Hulkenberg collided on lap 7, leaving the Sauber stuck in the gravel, it prompted the appearance of the Safety Car. Everyone bar the two McLarens and Esteban Ocon opted to make their first stop of the night. Immediately, it made little sense as to why McLaren would stay out. It meant that Verstappen, in third, had gained an entire pitstop over the McLaren pair and would take over P1 as soon as they made their first stop. McLaren would later say that this decision gave them more flexibility for their pit strategy, but all it really did was give Verstappen 25 seconds.
What it did, predictably, was leave Piastri and Norris with some overtaking to do on a track that had proven not at all accommodating to such manoeuvres. Still, this meant some entertainment for the viewer. A will-he-or-wont-he storyline for if Piastri could somehow find his way back to P1 it kept things interesting. As it were, Piastri made it back to second. However, Norris could only recover to fourth, and that with the help of a slight error from Kimi Antonelli too. It was, plainly, an utter disaster from McLaren.
But why would they take such a risk? In the spirit of fairness, of course. Piastri and Norris were running close to each other when the Safety Car came out. Stacking them in the pit lane would’ve cost Norris some time and maybe a few positions. To avoid favouring either of its drivers, McLaren decided on the option that would ensure victory for Max Verstappen. Fairness, in theory, is an honourable virtue, but sometimes logic needs to rule. Instead of ensuring Piastri in P1 and thereby guaranteeing that only a McLaren driver could win the driver’s title, they’ve handed Max Verstappen a lifeline, giving him a shot at the championship. If we dare to cast our minds back a few years, stranger things have happened in Abu Dhabi. And if by some odd turn of events Verstappen does walk away with the title, McLaren would have no one to blame but themselves. But hey, at least they were fair.
