Mark Hughes on the details of the Qatar Grand Prix

Mark Hughes, an expert from The Race, analyzed the events of the Qatar Grand Prix, which took place according to a somewhat unusual scenario, and drew attention to the unexpected consequences of the decision made by the FIA ​​​​before the race.

Max Verstappen won the Qatar Grand Prix as expected, but the victory did not come as easily as usual. The special quality of the Red Bull car, which allows drivers to save tires, meant little this time.

Due to the risk of tire separation and the FIA ​​limit on the number of laps that can be completed on one set of tyres, the race was held in a long-forgotten manner typical of that era when Formula 1 did not use Pirelli tires used, i.e. between countless pit stops they turned into sprints and the drivers attacked with full force.

They were unfortunate that all this took place in early October in the heat and high humidity typical of Qatar. Charles Leclerc spoke best about the difficulties that had to be overcome: “I think it was the toughest race I have ever done. Firstly because of the absolutely crazy heat, secondly because of all those fast corners, and thirdly – and most importantly – because of the three pit stops.

I think we all underestimated how hard we would have to push ourselves going full speed through these fast corners. It’s hard to put into words how difficult it was. Twice as tough as racing in Singapore.”

The Qatar circuit actually consists mainly of such corners. There are 16 of them and only the 6th is a hairpin bend, which cannot be called a fast bend. And the rest is long-term and interconnected, so the load there is higher than on other circuits of the season, and ground effect cars generate enormous downforce at high speeds.

To this, a rule was added that required a certain number of laps to be completed on one set of tires, which meant that the drivers drove almost at full strength throughout the segment. Usually this is not the case, because everyone has to save the rubber and the problem of excessive physical exertion does not arise.

Logan Sargent had to abandon the race because he just couldn’t handle it. Esteban Ocon threw up in his helmet. George Russell almost lost consciousness at one point. On straights, riders would somehow try to extend their arms above the handlebars, just to at least direct some extra airflow towards them. Oscar Piastri sank to the floor in the room where the winner and runners-up meet before taking the stage.

Verstappen tolerated these loads more easily than the others, because only he was able to save the tires somewhat in the fastest corners. He did it just in case, simply because he could afford it; he calmly controlled the gap with Oscar Piastri’s McLaren. That’s why he said after the finish that it was one of his five toughest races. And for everyone else it was the hardest.

Of course, as soon as the FIA ​​limited the length of the segment on one set of tires to 18 laps, which meant three mandatory pit stops, everyone immediately realized that they had to keep the pace higher than normal.

The only thing that was difficult to predict was how fast the pace would be. The day before, during the sprint, the distance of which is 19 laps, which means there is much less fuel in the cars’ tanks, a high level of rubber degradation was recorded. The soft tires only lasted about five laps before the left front started to wear down to the cord. Even on Medium tires we had to drive carefully. But on Sunday the track was already covered with a layer of used rubber and the tires suffered much less.

Lando Norris, for example, was one of the first to understand this and easily moved ahead of Ocon thanks to a later pit stop, allowing him to rise to 5th position in the second segment. After which he increased his speed and soon overtook Leclerc. The McLaren driver started tenth after his fastest lap in qualifying was thrown away and he had to fight back.

The introduced limit on the number of laps simplified Verstappen’s task, as he could choose his tactics more flexibly. After Saturday’s sprint everyone tried to avoid soft tires, and he had Medium and Hard sets at his disposal, which allowed him to complete all 70 laps, while the Grand Prix distance is only 57, and this difference of 13 laps gave him the ability to maneuver – he could choose the moments for pit stops

Piastri, who started from 6th position but almost immediately moved up to second after an incident at the start between the Mercedes drivers, was given a rolled-in Medium set for the first segment, which had already completed 6 laps, while the tires on Max’s Red Bull only one completed.

So when the Australian had to make his first pit stop on lap 12, Verstappen was able to easily stay on track and his tires allowed him to complete an even faster lap than Piastri, even though he had just switched to the next set of Medium tyres. As a result, by the time of his first pit stop, Max had increased his lead over Piastri to 8 seconds.

Before the first pit stop, his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase said on the radio that Max could improve and the Dutchman easily drove the next lap a second faster than the previous one. This was in the 16th round. After the finish, Max said it was the first part of the distance that “made his race.”

“Three pit stops are not the fastest way to complete a race, but it was a good solution to the tire problem,” Red Bull Racing head Christian Horner summarized after the finish.

Who could have imagined that a measure like limiting the number of laps that can be completed in one set, taken for safety reasons, would allow drivers to attack more aggressively? Without this, the Qatar Grand Prix would most likely have been run as per the standard schedule with a single pit stop, and we would have seen the usual big advantage from Verstappen and Red Bull.

But in reality the race followed a slightly different scenario.