A new champion could be crowned - Owen Bellwood
The Qatar Grand Prix is the penultimate race of the season and while the constructors’ championship has been wrapped up by a dominant McLaren, the drivers’ title is still all to play for.
Lando Norris leads, but just 24 points back is team-mate Oscar Piastri and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. While a 24-point deficit has been turned around before, with Sebastian Vettel managing a similar feat as recently as 2010, Norris can wrap up the title this weekend. The Briton only needs to outscore Piastri and Verstappen by two points over the course of the weekend, which also features a sprint race on Saturday.
A podium on Sunday would almost guarantee the Mclaren driver a first world title, provided it’s backed up by a strong result in the sprint. Likewise, Piastri and Verstappen will both be chasing a race win in order to keep their own title hopes alive. It’s all coming down to the wire.
Will Piastri finally bounce back? - Oleg Karpov
It’s been a challenging couple of months for Oscar Piastri. The Australian, who looked like a driver with almost no weaknesses for most of this year’s campaign, has suddenly fallen from the top of the championship standings. Several mistakes – including errors in both qualifying and the race in Baku, plus another in the Sao Paulo sprint – combined with difficult weekends at some tracks, led to him losing the lead in Mexico. He then slipped further behind in Brazil and would have been 30 points adrift of Lando Norris had McLaren passed post-race inspection in Las Vegas.
Ironically, the Vegas disqualification even worked in Piastri’s favour. Yes, he is now level on points with Max Verstappen – but the weekend in Sin City marked the first time Piastri did not lose ground to Norris since… Zandvoort!
Qatar may offer Piastri a chance to finally reverse the trend. Losail was the venue of his first F1 victory, after all, even if it came in the sprint. Can he rebuild his confidence this weekend?
Will Red Bull be the fastest car again? - Ronald Vording
Ahead of the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Andrea Stella said there would be two tracks coming up where McLaren should be particularly strong: Interlagos and the Losail International Circuit. The track in Qatar features multiple medium-speed corners, is particularly tough on tyres, and has few heavy braking zones.
All of that should suit the MCL39, but when those comments were put to Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko in the Las Vegas paddock, the Austrian laughed: “Every week I hear that we’re heading to a McLaren track, but Max has already won quite some races after the summer break…” He’s right – and on top of that, Verstappen was victorious in Qatar last year.
The key question is whether Red Bull manages to get the RB21 into its operating window. But if it succeeds, the car should at least be competitive after the successful upgrades in the second half of the season. McLaren still holds a tyre advantage in high temperatures, but it remains to be seen how much that is actually worth with Pirelli's maximum stint length.
Mercedes close to securing P2 in constructors - Oleg Karpov
The battle for second place in the constructors’ championship could be decided in Qatar. McLaren’s disqualification handed Mercedes a double podium in Las Vegas, delivering a significant haul of points.
Toto Wolff’s team now looks close to locking down P2, with its main rivals struggling to mount consistent challenges. Even though Red Bull has won four races since the summer break, it remains effectively a one-car operation, with Yuki Tsunoda unable to find the speed or consistency when it matters. And Ferrari… well, their recent form speaks for itself. So, no need to talk a lot more about it.
In Qatar, Mercedes only needs to outscore Red Bull by four points – assuming Ferrari does nothing extraordinary either – for the team to secure second place and end the season on a positive note. Adding to Wolff’s optimism is Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s recent form: the Italian has finally started to show his potential, taking two consecutive podiums. Can he extend that streak this weekend in Qatar?
Concerns about stint limit may be premature - Ed Hardy
Whatever happens this weekend, the grand prix will still be a unique one because Pirelli has enforced a 25-lap limit per stint, which effectively forces teams into a two-stop strategy for the 57-tour race.
There are concerns that this is limiting strategic options, Sauber boss Jonathan Wheatley claimed “it’s just going to be a bit of a procession” – but is it really? Pirelli’s motorsport director Mario Isola was right to point out that teams aren’t forced to pit on the 24th lap and there’s still enough room for flexibility, as Las Vegas showed.
George Russell pitted on lap 17, Lando Norris was lap 22 and Max Verstappen was two tours later and the fight amongst the top three was still engaging enough. Who knows what can happen at race start as well? One of the frontrunners may be forced into an early stop and thus attempt a different strategy to others. So, there’s no harm in imposing something new, especially if there are concerns over tyre wear around the track.
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